Are you healing your child from autism? In the science world, we call it optimal outcome. Are you giving your child a lot of supplements? Do you wonder if they even work?
We’re going to look at cobalamin, also known as vitamin B12 so if that’s what you’re interested in, then keep watching.
Autism Comorbidities
Comorbidities are defined as the simultaneous presence of two chronic diseases or conditions in a patient. Treatments for many of these comorbidities are well known. Therefore, there is no reason at all for your child to suffer from certain comorbidities.
Here’s a list of autism comorbidities that are very well accepted in the medical community of autism:
- Seizure and epilepsy
- Neurotransmitter disorders
- Sleep disorders
- Metabolic disorders (Folate, cobalamin, tetrahydrobiopterin, carnitine, redox, and mitochondrial)
- Immune disorders
- Gastrointestinal disorders
So these are co-morbidities that work with autism very commonly. And if your child has any of these comorbidities, they do need to be addressed while healing autism.
What Is Cobalamin?
Cobalamin is more commonly known as vitamin B12 so you can hear that term used interchangeably.
B vitamins are water-soluble, meaning they excrete it in urine, if not used by the body. Vitamin B12 doesn’t just work in one aspect of the body, it is involved in many aspects of the proper functioning of our bodies. And they also work synergistically, so vitamin B12 works closely with vitamin B9 (also known as foliate) and they work together synergistically in many aspects such as red blood cell synthesis, and iron utilization.
Reduce levels lead to increased micronucleus formation and reduced telomere length respectively – and that is all related to problems with DNA methylation. So I’m sure you’ve heard of methylation before. It’s a big topic in the autism community, and you could see how vitamin B12 works with other vitamins in our body for proper DNA methylation.
I do have another video specifically on folate. So if you’re very interested in foliate folic acid and folinic acid, then please check out that video as well. But these are separate comorbidities.
Vitamin B12 works synergistically with vitamin B9, but there are certain aspects to each of those vitamins that work independently. Therefore, they are separated into two different metabolic disorders. So it’s important to be able to understand that they are separate metabolic disorders, but they do work closely together with both those vitamins.
Indications Of Need
Many who are deficient in vitamin B12 experience:
- Anemia
- Depression
- Neurological impairments
- Dementia
- Fatigue or overall weakness
- Immune deficiency
- Inflammation of the tongue
So if your child’s tongue is red and swollen, the tongue is a very good indicator of vitamin B12 deficiency.
Improvements in those with autism from vitamin B12 are typically increased in speech and social interactions as well as better sensory processing of the environment.
Vitamin B12 And Autism
Research has shown that blood levels of vitamin B12 are inconsistent as a group. So there’s research in the autism population that shows increased levels as well as those that have decreased levels.
However, when you look at cerebral levels of cobalamin vitamin B12 they’re more consistently found to be deficient in those with autism. And that makes sense because a lot of times somebody could have normal levels of vitamin B12 but the actual mechanisms involved in the body’s processing of it doesn’t work.
And therefore, let’s say in the brain – that’s why it’ll be consistently shown as those with autism having lower levels in the brain. Whereas in the blood, it’s inconsistent. So there could be increased and decreased in those with autism. But if you look at more of the functionality as to where the body is using the vitamin B12. That’s where the research has shown more consistent data.
Cobalamin Treatment
Many choose methylated vitamin B12 shots. Those are prescription only. You need to get those from your doctor. Although there is oral methylcobalamin that can be used.
Common side effects of vitamin B12. Usually, with the shots, it is hyperactivity, although it certainly could be seen with the oral too.
Now here’s a little advanced move. So if you’re working with a healthcare practitioner that really knows autism and really knows metabolic disorders and really knows what to do, then you might see this combination of using DMG, TMG, folinic acid and vitamin B12 shots, and again, they’re used in combination to target different methylation issues.
Cobalamin Treatment Result
So let’s look at some of the research that has been published using cobalamin treatment.
An 8-week double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial that found methylcobalamin injections (methyl vitamin B12 injections) improve their clinician-rated CGI-I score.
And results also showed that clinically measured cellular methylation capacity increased. So clinicians saw a better behavior as well as different lab tests, measuring methylation capacity. That was also improved. This was just with only vitamin B12 injections for eight weeks.
Now a three-month clinical trial studied oral folinic acid along with vitamin B12 injections, showed glutathione metabolism normalized. There was also an average improvement in skills of 7.7 months – when you measure child, they should have certain skills -within this three-month clinical trial, there was an improvement in certain skills and it was a 7.7 month improvement. Again over a three month time period. That’s pretty impressive results.
There was also improvement in:
- expressive communication
- personal and domestic daily living skills
- interpersonal play-leisure
- coping social skills
That was three months in. This was again, a little bit of an advanced move, so it’s looking at folinic acid and methyl vitamin B12 injections, and you could see when there’s that combination of supplements you get different results.
So the results here showed improvement in glutathione metabolism. Now, glutathione influences:
- detoxification
- inflammation
- immune response
- transport of nutrients across membranes
- and much, much more
You can see the first clinical trial only did the vitamin B12 injections, and there was an improvement in the clinically measured cellular methylation capacity, whereas this three-month clinical trial that looked at oral folinic acid and methyl vitamin B12 injections, that showed an improvement in glutathione.
It’s really important to work with a healthcare practitioner that can really understand what comorbidity your child has so that the right supplements can be matched up.
Cobalamin & Diet
Now the best way to work with a healthcare practitioner who is this knowledgeable in being able to really prescribe and recommend supplements that target these comorbidities for your child. The best way to start working with them is if your child has the optimal diet for them.
So here, this is some research showing that there was a dietary vitamin B12 deficiency identified in three children with autism who also had optic neuropathy, so they were losing sight.
This was a study done on three children, but all 3 children had severe food selectivity resulting in low vitamin B12 levels. They were self-selecting to some very poor high-carb foods. So the treatment that was given to these children was the vitamin B12 shots, and it resulted in improvement of visual functioning in all three children.
Food selectivity, a known complication of autism, and it can result in vitamin deficiency that can cause visual loss and optic atrophy.
If your child is not eating a well-balanced diet. It’s really important to get them started on the right special diet for them because autism comorbidities can be healed and treated. It is much more efficient and much easier when your child is eating an optimal diet for them.
