Autism treated by Vitamin D: Dr. Cannell - video

Speech at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, California

Given at the same time as the Vitamin D Workshop

YouTube Video

PDF of the slides is attached at the bottom of this page

You may want to read the slides in a 2nd window while viewing the YouTube video


Bullet-point overview by VitaminDWiki: Why Dr. Cannell believes Autism is related to Vitamin D

  1. Both have strong inheritance features – Vitamin D about 60%

  2. Both have gotten substantially worse in last 30 years

  3. Vitamin D is known to be involved in brain development

  4. All autistic children are VitD deficient, but not all children who are deficient are autistic: genes are involved

  5. When giving vitamin D to cure children of rickets “mental dullness” decreases as well

  6. Children with genes which give them too much (Williams Syndrome) have to reverse of autism – too sociable

  7. Mothers having lots of fish (and thus more vitamin D) give birth to kids with less autistic symptoms

  8. Both associated with weak bones

  9. Both worse around the age of weaning

  10. Autism is more common in rich families – more likely to apply sun screen and stay indoors

  11. Autism increases with drugs which lower levels of vitamin D

  12. Seizures are common with Autism - Vitamin D has been shown to reduce seizures

  13. Fewer autistic symptoms (such as sleep problems) during summer: when child gets more vitamin D from the sun

  14. Both worse with latitude

  15. Both vary with Ultraviolet light

  16. Both vary with time of year (more birth of autistics in March in Northern hemisphere)

  17. 2X more urban autism – less UVB in urban environments

  18. Both worse with pollution

  19. Both worse with increased clouds and rain

  20. Both worse with closely spaced pregnancies

  21. Autistics have abnormal immune response – similar to that of vitamin D deficiency

  22. Low levels of vitamin D in mother animals reduces brain function in offspring

  23. Vitamin deficient rat pups have similar brain abnormalities to that of human autistic children

  24. Autistic children get less vitamin D in their blood for the same amount of sun exposure

  25. The 4 males/1 female ratio - Note estrogen increases vitamin D in the brain (testosterone does not)

  26. Both worse in African Americans (A-A 2-3 increased autism rate)

  27. Both worse in Dark-skinned immigrants in Europe


See also VitaminDWiki

Note Dr. Cannell's response to question #30 in the webinar

Accidentally 3 mothers gave 3 dropper fulls instead of 3 drops worth of vitamin D to their austistic children

Dr. Cannell did not say, but a typical standard is 2,000 IU in a drop, so the children got 60,000 IU per day

There was a rapid recovery in all three cases.

Dr. Cannell speculated that the future goal for Autism might be a vitamin D level of 150 ng instead of the current 50-80 ng level

See also web

Short url = http://is.gd/autism62013