The Missing Microbiome is a crucial factor in Dr Nancy O’Hara‘s clinic, where children with all types of chronic illnesses present, including a large percentage of children with autism who have behaviors that are labeled autism, that are really about pain, discomfort, inflammation. Lack of normal metabolism may be going on in their bodies. When they are treated then the behaviours get better.

Dr O’Hara also treats children with inflammatory bowel disease that, rather than being treated with medications, are being treated with diet, antimicrobial therapy, anti-inflammatory herbs, essential fatty acids that are helping them to get better.

Dr O’Hara has been a featured speaker at past Mindd International Forums. Her practical insights and extensive clinical experience provide practitioners with the latest research and methods to improve their clinical skills.

Healthier Children Recover More Easily

“When we look at children with autism we see a variety of outcomes. I’d say first of all the more the children are healthier, the more they are available for the therapy and the more they are available to learn. They’re not constipated, they’re not in pain and then, there are some children that recover. Usually somewhere between twenty and thirty per cent of kids will fully recover.

Somebody once used the analogy of getting hit by a bus you don’t get cured of being hit by the bus but you can recover from it, so with good diets, nutrients, removing the bad stuff, some of these kids can recover and many of them if not all of them can be better.

If there was one piece of advice I could give to Mums it would be to love your child as they are, because I think stress is one of the biggest culprits that take our lives and our children away from us, trying to change them. I often use the analogy of a gift. You know these children are our gifts, just the way they are. They may have nine or ten layers of wrapping paper that we need to unwrap and figure out the true gift inside, but at every stage don’t forget that each of these children are gifts.

Hellman Therapy and the Missing Microbiome

There are some very exciting interventions on the horizon, and one that I would like to mention is something called Hellman therapy, and it is the idea is of the missing microbiome or the hygiene theory, and that is we have totally changed our insides by the way we are living indoors without vitamin D exposure, wearing shoes, using toilets, using antibiotics, C-sections, formula. All of these things have changed our microbiome and our kids epigenetically, genetically are more susceptible to those changes and so they haven’t been able to adapt.

We can reset the immune system to start acting appropriately. We have seen marked improvements in many autoimmune diseases, inflammatory bowel disease, allergies, asthma, and also in autism and ADHD. With improvements in anxiety, attention deficit, OCD and ticks, I think it’s a therapy that’s on the horizon for many of us suffering from chronic disease.

Forum Presentation with Dr O’Hara:
Making the Grade: ADHD without drugs

Stimulant sales have soared in the past decade; pharmaceutical companies can market directly to the consumer in the US. Lifestyle modifications, including careful attention to sleep, exercise and nutrition, should be the first step in treating learning and attention problems. Some supplements have published evidence about their efficacy in improving symptoms of ADHD, and classroom interventions are critical for management. Learners will hear the latest research and get tools for managing ADHD & learning differences without reaching for the prescription pad.