An overview of Dr. Porte's Presentation at Autism One from Steve Stoddard:

Dr. Karen Porte gave a presentation entitled "Pituitary Disfunction in Autism Spectrum Disorders".

Honestly, after listening to Dr. Buttar, I didn't think there could be anything left to hear, but a couple of listmates had enticed me to go, plus I had never seen this particular physiology paired to autism. Her findings actually stunned me more than anything anyone said at the conference and if they hold up and continue, they should
be the equivalent of Dr. Wakefield's discovery of enterocolitis in autism.

I know a lot less about the endocrine system than I do metals. I won't make this a teaching seminar, because many of you know a lot more about this subject than I do. I was just hanging on to what Dr. Porte said and I think I managed to get the critical findings.

Dr. Karen Porte is an endocrinologist located in Joplin, MO. She has been in practice for 25 years. She arrived on the autism scene in Oct 2003, when a patient / parent with a newly diagnosed Aspergers child, became obsessed with internet research on metal toxicity, and stopped taking her hormone replacements (including AGHR), stopped eating, sleeping, etc. hmmm.....

Patient / parent's health went downhill and her physician husband called Dr. Porte who subsequently called and summoned her patient / friend to her office, looked at her and said "what are you doing to yourself?" The reply was outburst of tears and explanation her son was Aspy and "mercury poisoned". Dr. Porte reaction was basic "oh my God" and asked how he would get mercury poisoned, the reply was "from his vaccines" and as Dr. Porte describes "I felt all the blood leave my face and a crashing sound in my ears". Turns out Dr. Porte had 14 Rhogams and has two kids with neuro disorders, not autism. She knew instantly that metals were at the heart of many, many of her patients problems.

The parent somehow convinced Dr. Porte to give her child, of normal stature, something extra in his complete endo workup...a Growth Hormone (GH) stim challenge. It came back as clinically deficient. The next 11 ASD children she saw all were in the 50-90th percentile for height, but were all clinically deficient in GH. This is unprecedented in her 25 years of practice.

Why is this important? Read Deth methylation study. Growth Hormone factors control signaling for methylation. She called Deth and he told her it made perfect sense that toxic damage of this signaling pathway would originate in the pituitary or in the hypothalamus receptor and it was the next level to investigate. The hypothalamic-pituitary-thymic axis is critical to and responsive to immunity and immune insult. Growth Hormone is responsible for lots of functions beside skeletal growth. It is the GF receptor that stimulates the G-Protein (re: Mary Megson hypothesis).

Why is this important? Some autistic children might receive a partial panel, mostly thyroid, but few would ever receive something complete. Dr. Porte's is complete and she probably only performed this because it was a friend's child. Nevertheless, this is how so many mainstream doctors finally get curious. Dr. Porte is the right person to look at this as she has done some pioneering work with GH and other syndromes, including chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. She reports fully over a third of all of these cases have AGHD and this is in a verification process before a study is designed. What is important is that the level of clinical deficiency is rarely met in children: approximately 1 in 4000. Every child with diagnoses of ASD, so far, has met the criteria: 12 out of 12, 100%

Her ASD findings (heck, i just realized I am missing a page of 9 slides) include: low PST (pituitary stimulating hormone), low TSH and other thyroid abnormalities, low screening IGF-1, low FT-4, low GH on arginine stim test, there's more, but I'm missing it. She believes there is damage and or destruction to the anterior pituitary in autism, but cannot predict its permanence.

Clinical deficiency is important, but an arbitrary level, that obtains (or not) insurance coverage for GH injections. She is treating the 12 children with GH and all have had large, global symptom improvements. She plans to educate herself on some of the DAN deficiency measures and measure to see if those are mitigated, as well as collaborate with Dr. Buttar (and presumably any doctor who calls on her) in chelation. Her normal prognosis for a GH deficiency is GH shots for life, but she is unsure with chelation. She is certain that vaccine injury and Hg is at the heart of it, but it is way to early to make a lifetime prediction for her current patients, let alone others. She is looking forward to seeing other ASD children, helping them, and building the database, so other endo's will start looking at this. I guess if history is any guide, that means she will get one other person. She is already being criticized by colleagues, but could care less.

My personal feeling is that this will be important, especially to kids who fully chelate, but are not yet completely well. This may aid in the repair process, kind of a bootstrap. May be especially important for older kids or kids with multiple type insult.

Dr. Porte had an incredibly understandable, well organized lecture entitled "Pituitary Disfunction in Autism Spectrum Disorders". She walked us through a "101" very clearly and tied her ASD findings into it as well as the toxic issues. I spent time with her afterwords and found that these findings have given her a cause and I feel she is very empathetic, compassionate, and determined. Her workup costs around $2000 and lasts 4 hours if there is need for stim test. She does not take insurance, but preps the forms...kinda what we're all familiar with. She said she will consult with patients by email and any endocrinologist in the country concerning her ideas, findings, tests, therapy. She says any endo in the country can perform the testing she does. BUT WILL THEY? (my comment)

GH shots are subcutaneous, small needle, genetically engineered Protropin around twice a month, with frequent labs for awhile at least. She has seen IGF-1 levels rise in the 12 kids commensurate with their symptom improvements.

Her website:
www.drkarenporte.medem.com

Permission is given to forward this freely.

In Health,
Steve