On Thursday, April 6, 2000, Dr. John Upledger joined a panel of congressional delegates, concerned parents and healthcare professionals to debate the topic of autism at a Government reform Committee meeting of the U.S. House of Representatives. Chaired by Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), the committee heard testimony focusing on concerns regarding immunizations and whether evidence links them to the onset of autism.
“As we learned in our August hearing,” Rep. Burton said, “the rates of autism have escalated dramatically. What used to be considered a rare disorder has become near-epidemic.” Rep. Burton went on to tell the story of his won grandson who was born healthy and progressing normally until he received a routine immunization that contained DtaP, OPV, Haemophilus, Hepatitis B and MMR.
"Over the week and a half after the vaccinations, Christian would stare into space and act like he was deaf,” Rep. Burton said. “He would hit himself and others, which was something he had never done. He would shake his head from side to side as fast as he could. He lost all language."
Unfortunately, the day’s testimony demonstrated that what happened to Christian is not an isolated event. Dr. Upledger spoke about hundreds of autistic children he has evaluated over the years. “Historically, the onset of autistic behaviors is often preceded by some sort of febrile episode.” Such a fever, he said, could result from a viral infection, vaccine reaction or any number of causes, and often occurs about two weeks before parents notice symptoms of autism.
According to Dr. Upledger, those symptoms may well be the child’s attempt to change physiological or anatomical dysfunctions that may be causing pain or discomfort. Fortunately, his clinical experience has shown that, when specific corrections of the craniosacral system are successfully carried out, these behaviors often spontaneously cease.
“It is my opinion that the head-banging child is trying to release a compressive force in the head that is quite painful,” Dr. Upledger said. “When we release this compression, head banging stops.”
Dr. Upledger’s testimony on the effectiveness of CranioSacral Therapy was one of the many avenues explored at the hearing. Though Rep. Burton said the hearings would “raise more questions than answers today,” he vowed to “do everything humanly possible to determine if there’s something that can be done to unlock the prison of autism.”
“If we don’t take action now,” he concluded, “ten years from now may be too late, not only for this generation of children but for our taxpayer-funded healthcare education systems that will collapse from trying to care for these children.”
