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Toxic metals may influence autism severity
Children with higher levels of metals–such as lead and antimony–in their urine had more severe autism, suggesting that metal levels in their bodies may contribute to its seriousness.
The severity of a child's autism coincided with the levels of toxic metals excreted in their urine after treatment with a metals removal therapy, finds a study published in the Journal of Toxicology. The higher the levels of lead, antimony and other metals excreted, the more severe was the child's autism. The findings hold true across four independent tools used to assess autism severity.
The results suggest to researchers that these metals may contribute to the degree of autism symptoms in the children. Because these children had autism before the toxic metals were measured, the study does not address whether the metals cause autism or the sources of the metals.