Brisbane, Australia -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/28/2015 -- Brisbane Chiropractor Dr Scott Wustenberg, speaks movingly on a BackChat podcast he recorded for 'The Wellness Couch' when he tells the story of his amazing nutritional breakthrough in the treatment of his eldest daughter Maeghan, who has Autism.
How Maeghan's Story Began
Maeghan had been a healthy toddler who was hitting all her neurological milestones. At around 18 months, she began to wake screaming inconsolably with night terrors. At 20 months, she began to regress and withdraw. By the age of four years, she had become completely, non-verbal and unresponsive.
Despite being a Chiropractor with a first class degree from the New Zealand College of Chiropractic and a Functional Nutritionist with a Masters in Nutrition from RMIT, Scott felt powerless to help. He and his wife went through the same process that other parents do when a child is afflicted with a problem like this, taking her to paediatricians, audiologists and OTS - trying to get any help they could for the very frightening thing that was happening to their little girl.
Nutrition Provided the Key to Maeghan's Problem
By the time of her diagnosis with Autism at age four, Maeghan's diet had shrunk to the point where she would only eat a few, mostly white, foods like yogurt, toast and chips with the occasional sausage but not much other protein as she avoided other meats and eggs - things had to change!
The 5-Day Mealtime Mexican Standoff
As a nutritionist, Scott understands the effect of food on both body and brain so changing diet for Maeghan - and for the whole family was the most major and fundamental thing that he did first.
He removed all wheat, gluten and dairy and decreased sugar immediately. Every day, for five days, he would make a nutritious meal like lamb cutlets with beans and peas and Maeghan would push the plate away, blow a raspberry at him and accept only an apple to eat!
This process was extremely distressing for both parents but by the end of the first five days, she began to try the food she was being offered.
By the end of that first week, she began to use words again, using whole, short sentences instead of grunts!
How Could This Be?
Drawing on his nutritional training, Scott has no doubt that foods can act like drugs in our brains and bodies. His daughter was actually self-harming by becoming addicted to the food choices she was making and had 'shut down' as a result.
By withdrawing gluten, dairy and added sugars from the diet, the effects began to diminish so that in his daughter's case, she began to come out of her fog, and she started to respond and communicate verbally again.
How Did Chiropractic Help?
Scott believes wholeheartedly that Chiropractic helps and that removing subluxations or interference from the nervous system is essential for overall health and wellbeing. He checked Maeghan regularly himself, to ensure this and took her to other experts in New Zealand and Australia too. All used different approaches and while he believes that this helped, it failed to lift her out of her introspection as she was still non-verbal, not learning or doing what would be considered 'normal' for a child of her age.
Ultimately, he feels that without the chiropractic care, there would have been a worsening of her condition but it was only when his daughter's diet and nutrition were corrected, that they started to see the chiropractic adjustments really begin to hold and big improvements in her behaviour, mood and thinking.
Maeghan Today
Maeghan has continued to change and improve. She has just started High School this year and is in a mainstream class.
Scott wants to teach what he has learned to other parents so that they can avoid going through the same experience with their own child. He says that if he can help any parent avoid the depression and despair that went with his daughter's descent into autism and to 'reclaim' that child before the descent becomes too extreme, that for him, will be a life worth living.
To learn more about Scott and Maeghan's amazing story and his fascinating insights into the effects of food on our brains and bodies listen to the full podcast here (http://www.optimallife.com.au/autism/autism-podcast-episode/)
Contact Name: Dr Scott Wustenberg
Company: Optimal Life
Address: 56/53 Commercial Road, Teneriffe, QLD 4007, Australia
Telephone: +61 (0) 7 3854 0165
Email: neo@optimallife.com.au
Website: http://www.optimallife.com.au