My son turned 7 today. He went through a 2-week round of intravenous chelation, which was finished about a month ago. The chelating agents were DMPS and Calcium-EDTA, both of which have a fairly well-understood safety record in toxic metal removal. The medical establishment doesn't yet accept this as a valid treatment for autism [because they don't accept that heavy metals, particularly mercury, have any role to play in autism], but my own personal experience with the academic research establishment during my PhD taught me to question authority, and keep an open mind. I am glad I did.

Urine tests done after the rounds of chelation showed high levels of cadmium and lead; we didn't see much mercury, but I believe mercury, if present, won't come out until lead does. At the very least, the urine tests show there is something unusual going on in terms of toxicity, which suggests a biochemical basis for autism. Clearly genes also play a role, but even the statement "Smoking causes cancer" needs to be qualified with "in the set of people that are genetically predisposed to it", because it is obvious that the majority of people who smoke don't and won't get cancer.

We went in to the treatment with our eyes open, not expecting anything dramatic. In the event, we have been pleasantly surprised. Our son has shown measurable step-change in a few critical areas, enough to suggest that the treatment had effect. Nothing miraculous or dramatic, but definitely a positive, noticeable change. His ABA therapists and school teachers also noticed the changes, and they are at best neutral towards these biomedical interventions.

Here is a quick list of changes we have observed in the last 3-4 weeks after chelation. These changes did not happen all at once, but there was a progression.

1. His response time when we ask him a question has improved fairly significantly. The answers come quickly now. Previously, we would often end up repeating the question.
2. For the first time, I spoke to my son on the phone. Before this round of treatments, someone would have to prompt him on the other side to say hello and respond to questions. This time he responded spontaneoulsy to simple questions like "What did you eat?" and "What do you want me to bring for you?" To that last question, his response was "Bring Dell" - meaning my laptop computer. At least he has his priorities right!
3. His speech seems more spontaneous and natural.

He still has a long way to go to attain normal speech. Sometimes we feel we are in a thousand mile journey and only on the hundredth mile, but before he was at the seventieth mile, so that is a welcome change. And he is still showing improvements.

Overall, I am pretty pleased with chelation. We met numerous other parents, many of whom doing a second or third round of chelation, and they all reported seeing very positive results for their kids.

As for the medical establishment, I hope they would pay attention to parents like us, who see clear results from these treatments. Somehow, I am not hopeful they will.