In this live webinar, hosted by Autism Research Coalition, William Shaw, PhD & Sidney Baker, MD discussed their latest publication "Case Study: Rapid Complete Recovery From An Autism Spectrum Disorder After Treatment of Aspergillus With The Antifungal Drugs Itraconazole And Sporanox" (2020).

As noted in the publication, "Escalation of the dose of itraconazole resulted in a complete loss of all symptoms of Autism over the course of 3 months. This rapid complete reversal of Autism is consistent with several articles proposing mold in general and Aspergillus specifically as a potential major cause of Autism."

Dr. Sidney Baker was the co-founder of Defeat Autism Now!, a national organization devoted to dialog among parents, practitioners and scientists regarding biomedical treatment options and the environmental origins of the current Autism epidemic. He received his undergraduate, medical, and medical postgraduate training from Yale University where he served as Chief Resident in Pediatrics on the full-time medical faculty. He is the author of multiple books and publications and was the 1999 recipient of the Linus Pauling Award of the Institute for Functional Medicine for his contributions to the development of Functional Medicine, to name a few achievements.

Dr. William Shaw is board certified in the fields of clinical chemistry and toxicology by the American Board of Clinical Chemistry and the founder of The Great Plains Laboratory. Dr. Shaw worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Children's Mercy Hospital, University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Medicine, and Smith Kline Laboratories. He is the author of Biological Treatments for Autism and PDD, originally published in 1998 and Autism: Beyond the Basics, published in 2009. Dr. Shaw is the stepfather of a child with Autism and has helped thousands of patients and medical practitioners to successfully improve the lives of people with autism, ADHD, Alzheimer's disease, and other serious conditions.

In a live webinar, presented by the Autism Research Coalition, William Shaw, PhD reviewed his research that identified several compounds in the urine of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) using gas chromatography mass spectrometry. Many of these compounds (elevated in ASD) were associated with the presence of mold and yeast in the gastrointestinal tract. The children with ASD had significantly higher values compared to healthy controls in these compounds.

Antifungal therapy as a treatment for ASD became much more common throughout the world because of this study and the concerted efforts by Dr. Sidney Baker to use what he called the “antifungal parade” to treat ASD, although it was not completely clear if the benefits of antifungal treatments were due to the control of yeast (Candida), mold, or both. Recently Dr. Baker treated a young boy with significant ASD using the drugs Itraconazole and Sporanox, drugs that are very useful for the control of many molds. As a result of the treatment, the child had a complete and very rapid recovery from ASD. Testing at The Great Plains Laboratory found that the child’s rapid recovery correlated with a drastic drop in metabolites associated with the mold Aspergillus.