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Nine years ago, at age 32, Josie and John Strickler welcomed their third daughter, Halie, into the world. Halie was born with Down syndrome, despite Josie’s relatively young age and healthy pregnancy. Typically, Down syndrome happens with older mothers and those low on folic acid during the first trimester of pregnancy.

Josie and John chose high-potency vitamin therapy for Halie in infancy and through childhood, so that she would grow up with milder facial and physical features and improved intellectual development.

“Halie today is going through typical nine-year-old things, such as deciding what she wants to wear and picking the colours for her room,” says Strickler. “Most people don’t pick up on the fact that she has Down syndrome. Halie is a confident little girl, sociable, with a lot of friends.”

Could vitamin supplements really account for the difference? Over the years, a small number of physicians and nonphysician clinicians have recommended vitamin supplements to correct some aspects of Down syndrome. Although the genetic defect that causes Down syndrome cannot be changed, compelling evidence shows that some of the biochemical processes can be greatly improved with good nutrition.

Leaders in Treating Down Syndrome

Vitamin therapy in Down syndrome began in 1959, when Henry Turkel, MD, of Detroit became interested in treating the metabolic disorders of Down syndrome with “U” series vitamins, a mixture of vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, digestive enzymes, lipotropic nutrients, an amino acid, and a number of drugs (thyroid hormone, antihistamines, nasal decongestants, and a diuretic). Conventional medicine ignored Turkel, and the US Food and Drug Administration allowed him to practise only in Michigan. He eventually retired, moved to Israel, and died in 1992.

When he was in his 80s, though, Turkel asked Jack Warner, MD, of San Juan Capistrano, California, to continue his clinical work on Down syndrome. Warner took Turkel’s original supplement recommendations and modified them as a vitamin-mineral formula called “high achievement potential capsules,” containing high dosages of dietary antioxidants like vitamins A, E, and C, and minerals zinc, copper, manganese, and selenium. Warner also established the nonprofit Warner House for treating Down syndrome and, like Turkel, kept exceptionally detailed records, including serial photographs, of the progress of his Down syndrome patients.

Before Warner’s death in 2003, Robert J. Thiel, PhD, NMD, began to methodically analyze patient records at Warner House. Thiel’s doctorate was in nutritional science, and his son had been born with Down syndrome three years earlier. Thiel seemed well-suited to carry the torch.

“In analyzing Warner’s patient records from a statistical standpoint–something no one had done before–I found that people who followed Warner’s nutritional protocol were of more normal height for their age,” Thiel says. “They also had less facial puffiness, less obvious eye folds, and a slightly more normal nose bridge, compared with untreated people with Down syndrome.”

Thiel, it should be noted, has financial ties to Doctors’ Research, Inc., a company selling supplements for Down syndrome.

Meanwhile, in Ottawa, Kent MacLeod, a respected pharmacist, developed an interest in Down syndrome in the early 1980s. Since then, he has focused on using nutritional supplements to treat Down syndrome. Today, MacLeod is clinical director of the Wellness Hospital, which includes a medical centre with a staff physician and psychiatrist, an analytical laboratory for measuring blood levels of vitamins and minerals, a small vitamin company, and a compounding pharmacy to customize vitamin, mineral, amino acid, and protein supplements. Virtually all of the Wellness Hospital’s activities are geared toward assessing and treating children with Down syndrome.

Although MacLeod’s clinic sells supplements formulated for children with Down syndrome, he’s not one to promise miracles to desperate parents. “Supplements can lead to major improvements,” MacLeod said. “They don’t change the genes, but they do improve their functioning. We know that nutritional intake influences intelligence and growth. Countless studies have shown this to be the case,” he explains. “If a kid doesn’t have normal blood levels of vitamin E, as an example, he should supplement so he has the same amount as an average kid. It’s as simple as that.”

Improved Quality of Life

Jack Challem is the author of Feed Your Genes Right (Wiley, 2005) and The Inflammation Syndrome (Wiley, 2003).

Source: alive #287, September 2006