Excerpt: 'Healing and Preventing Autism: A Complete Guide'

April 1, 2009 — -- Actress Jenny McCarthy has been outspoken in her views on autism.

She's discussed "green" vaccines and diet as ways to prevent and treat autism in her controversial new book, "Healing and Preventing Autism: A Complete Guide," written with Dr. Jerry Kartzinel.Read an excerpt below.

CLICK HERE to link to autism resources in your state.

By Jenny McCarthy

MOST PEOPLE IN THE AUTISM COMMUNITY have heard my story of how I fought to get my son back from autism. For those of you new to my story, I'd like to share with you the events that led us down this path that an increasing number of families are experiencing right now.

Evan was two and a half years old when I found him in his crib convulsing and struggling to breathe. I had no idea it was a seizure until the paramedics began talking about how to stop it. I was hoping it was a fluke, but my nightmare had only just begun. Three weeks later Evan started seizing again, but this time he wasn't struggling to breathe. His body just lay lifeless as foam started to come out of his mouth. I prayed to God to make it stop, but it didn't. Minutes later his body went blue and his eyes dilated. I knew he had just gone into cardiac arrest. As I begged God to bring him back to me, I felt this overwhelming feeling of calming energy. If it could have spoken, it would have said, "Everything is going to be okay." I trusted this energy. I felt that this experience happening before my very eyes had a purpose. After two minutes the paramedics revived him. The "calming energy" was right. He came back. Everything seemed okay. Unfortunately, it was short lived. Evan seized on and off for the next seven hours. The doctors didn't know what to make of it; they told me he had epilepsy. But I knew there was more to it. Everything in my mommy radar was screaming, "Keep looking, there's more." So, I hunted for the very best neurologist, someone who would give me insights into my unanswered questions. He took one look at Evan and said, "I'm sorry; your son has autism."

I died in that moment. All of my future images of Evan getting married or hugging me on his way to college broke into a million pieces. I recalled all of the oddities Evan had had that had led up to this point. I had thought the flapping of his hands or staring out the window for hours made him "special." I had no idea it was autism.

When I asked if there was anything that could be done, the doctor had little hope to offer me. "Some progress is being made with some speech and behavioral therapies, but that's about all," he said. I didn't want to hear that. I wanted to know WHY he had autism and I wanted to know HOW to get him completely back. Leaving the doctor's office that day, I knew I was about to embark on the biggest mission of my life. I was going to get my boy back. I had no idea how, but I trusted my instincts and knew they would always point me in the right direction.

I went online and learned about the gluten-free, casein-free diet. I listened to my instincts and started Evan on it, along with some vitamins. Within two weeks of implementing the diet and vitamins, his eye contact was better and his language doubled! I was out of my mind with joy. It was working! But when I called Evan's doctor to tell him about the progress, he told me it was all a fluke -- that diet and vitamins don't really have an effect. I was shocked. I just told him that I was witnessing huge progress without having implemented any other therapies. He ignored my findings, but I didn't care (yet). I kept digging and found communities that were healing kids with autism. I found a doctor who specialized in healing kids through diet, detox, and supplements. His name was Dr. Jerry Kartzinel. I contacted him and begged him to take my son as a patient. He had no idea that I had any celebrity status. He was taking me on only as a mom of a child with autism.

MY WIFE AND I had three very healthy boys but felt that one more would complete our family. We decided to adopt a special child who may have had a difficult time being adopted due to the fact that his biological mother was a drug abuser. I knew there were going to be medical problems just because of her methamphetamine (along with other substances) usage. But I'm a pediatrician. Who would be better suited to take care of a child with this kind of background?

We wanted to be in some small way helpful to this world. It reminds me of the story where there were thousands and thousands of starfish that had just washed up on shore and this little boy was on the beach throwing each starfish that he could back into the water. A man came up to him and said, "Son, it's not going to impact this whole huge beach. This is not going to have any effect on this big group of starfish." And the little boy looked at him and said, "You might be right, but it affects this starfish." And he threw it back into the ocean. I know I can't take care of all of the world's children, but I can take care of at least this one. Joshua is our starfish.

Joshua was developing and thriving normally until I gave him his MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine. You see, as a pediatrician, I felt it was very important to vaccinate children against diseases. I made sure that Joshua received, in a timely manner, all of his vaccines starting right after birth with the hepatitis B vaccine. He was around four months of age when he started getting ear infections, rashes, and even required a spinal tap to make sure he did not have spinal meningitis (he was really sick!) -- and all of this followed his four-month vaccines. I was still clueless that his immune system was slowly breaking down. His ear infections continued to come and go. Then, at fourteen months of age, while he was coming off of an antibiotic, I gave him his MMR. Over the next two weeks he lost everything. My wife was the one who saw the change. She said, "You know, he's not been the same since you gave him the MMR." I gave the typical male response: "What?" And then I started to think about it and realized that she was right. This was 1997. I had no clue this was autism. Pediatrics in general had no clue. Very little was written about these kids in the early 90s and certainly nothing had been written in the 80s.

Excerpted with permission from the publisher. All Rights Reserved.