What is autism? What differentiates autistic people from others? What Causes Autism? There are hundreds of questions on people’s minds when it comes to this condition. What is it really?
Autism is a mental condition that remains present from the earliest days of childhood and lasts a lifetime. It is characterized by minor to major difficulties in social interaction and in the formulation of abstract concepts of language. And the critical part is that it is incurable. However, a new study shows that stem cell therapy can show great improvement in children with autism.
It is the story of Gracie Gregory, one of 25 autistic children who participated in the Duke University Durham, North Carolina study involving stem cells to alleviate the problems associated with autism. The idea behind the research was to find out if a transfusion of your own umbilical cord blood with the rare stem cells can cure autism or at least reduce the severity.
Gracie was diagnosed with autism at the age of 2. When Gracie’s mother found out about the research, she immediately signed her up without knowing what to expect and what not to expect. Such was the difficulty; clashed with their autistic son. There was a time when Gracie’s sister Ryleigh was afraid of her due to her unruly behavior like hitting and kicking. But now that same Ryleigh thinks Gracie is “very sweet and kind.” And it was only possible after stem cell therapy.
Gracie was on the mild to moderate scale for autism. During the trial, Gracie, then 5 years old, started with the same symptoms as kicking, spitting, yelling and even hitting her therapists. It was almost impossible to make her sit in one place.
The results were beyond what Gracie’s parents expected! Her parents remember how difficult their life was back then when handling it took 75% of their daily life and now, after therapy, it only consumes 10% of their daily time. When asked to rate their improvement on a scale of 1 to 10, their parents proudly rated 8/9.
Now she attends regular school, plays with her sister, and enjoys life to the fullest, something her parents would never have thought of.
According to her father, “We will say that we do not think it has cured her. You still see some of the little idiosyncrasies that she has. But then again, I think it has supercharged her learning curve. It has driven her to do things that she normally would not do.” Her mother added: “She got better, and we are grateful for that, whether it is stem cells or not. We are grateful for the changes that have occurred.”
Two-thirds of the children who participated in the study showed great improvement. These are the results of the first phase of the study, and a broader second-tier path is underway, promising long-term treatment for autistic children.
Skeptics keep saying that no matter what, autism cannot be cured and there are quite a few unanswered questions that need to be addressed before going crazy about it. Even the Duke researchers acknowledge that the study is at a very early stage and there is still a long way to go. But for families like Gregorys, it’s a life-changing experience.