This obsession with the status of vitamin A as a cure-all and anti-infective can be traced by to the heady days when vitamins were discovered. So early, that people didn’t realise that they were including vitamin D in with A and only disentangled them later. But it meant that vitamin A was named the anti-infective and cure-all and with the resistance of some belief-systems to scientific innovation (even when it is now 90 years-old), this is still being taught as if it is carved in stone. Note to self – track down Dr Aust recommendation of Vitamania.

Vitamin A has amazing uses in developing countries and can be very powerful for children – but there are few correspondences in nutritional status and access to health care for them and most children (excluding caveats) in Europe, US and elsewhere.

And, it is surprisingly easy to overdose well-nourished children on vitamin A: hypervitaminosis.

Mary Megson is cited by Patrick Holford in ONM in the section on autism – pp 240-1 of the hardback. Of Megson’s theory, he writes: “There is no real doubt that something funny is going on in the digestive tracts of autistic children. Could this be related to Vitamin A deficiency, she wondered?” Holford says “of course, the proof is in the pudding” [sic] and cites a lecture she gave at “the Ninth International Symposium on Functional Medicine, May 2002″ – the previous reference in this section is to a paper of Megson’s: Medical Hypotheses, Vol 54(6), 2000, pp 979-983.

As you say, Dr Aust – it certainly does seem to be a small world of Nutri-balls.

So these mavericks continue to circulate, paddling in the same scientific shallows, attending the same conferences and boasting connections with the same research institutes. They travel the world quoting each other in circular support, reinforcing a fringe belief in unproven interventions for autism and propagating the mistaken view that ordinary doctors are cowed by mysterious vested interests (pharmaceutical companies?) into not doing their best for children with autism.

Their harmful agenda is, regrettably, assisted by newspapers with acres of space to fill, who delight in feeding the middle-class paranoia over perfect parenting. For these organs, the tall, charismatic, articulate Dr Wakefield is a newsroom blessing on a slow Sunday…

There is nothing wrong with a scientist pursuing a hunch, and everything right about parents wanting to do the best for their child. There is nothing even particularly sinister about Dr Wakefield gambling his reputation on an instinct. But there is something depressing beyond belief about a scientist who refuses to recant in the face of overwhelming opposing evidence.

Dr Wakefield claims to hold the interests of autistic children and their parents above all, and has been lauded simply for listening. But showing compassion and respect to those affected by autism is also about being brave enough to admit you were wrong, and not using the fears and hopes of vulnerable parents to push your own agenda.

The first paragraph is relevant but I like the remainder.

The only name in Mayhew’s article I didn’t recognise was Dr Mary Megson. However, a quick bit of internet digging shows she is a US-based DAN! doctor and is into “mercury chelation therapy” (NB – PDF) for autistic children. She also seems to be associated with the Geiers and their “Lupron chemical castration” treatment of ill-repute, and has appeared as an “expert witness” for the plaintiffs in the Autism Omnibus proceedings. Apart from the mercury-vaccines stuff, Megson had previously advanced one or two other fringe biochemical theories for autism and seems to be keen on dosing autistic kids with cod liver oil and vitamin A.

It certainly does seem to be a small world of Nutri-balls.

Admin edit: That’s interesting. Freelance, general researcher or do you know if she was attached to ION in some capacity for a time?

And yeah, it’s nice to see that google is following its policy of not being evil, and liking this site :)

if people keep hearing the message about PH, his views, his science and his CV then maybe his lucrative TV work will dry up in the same way that Ms McKeith’s seems to have done.

it’s ace that if you google “patrick holford” this is the 3rd site that comes up.