Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson on vaccines, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, treatments for son with autism

Second in a two-part series.

Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson is a mother of a child with autism. Like many parents of children with autism, once VanDerHorst-Larson found out her child was diagnosed, she took matters into her own hands and became directly involved in the therapies and treatments for her son.

In 2002, at the age of 19 months, VanDerHorst-Larson’s son Cade was diagnosed with autism. Cade also has Celiac disease and a seizure disorder that occurred following his 15-month vaccinations. VanDerHorst-Larson believes that those vaccinations led to Cade’s autism. He was a healthy baby boy who had reached all of his developmental milestones, but there were dramatic changes in Cade directly after he had his shots for MMR, the flu, and chicken pox, VanDerHorst-Larson says.

Welcome to Holland

A year after Cade was diagnosed with autism, VanDerHorst-Larson established the nonprofit Holland Center, an educational and day treatment clinic for children with autism outside Minneapolis, Minnesota. VanDerHorst-Larson named the center after Emily Perl Kingsley’s poem, “Welcome to Holland” about special needs kids.  

The Holland Center combines behavioral therapy with environmental interventions based on biomedical assessments in a non-toxic setting. Students are given Applied Behavioral Analysis/Verbal Behavior (ABA/VB), supporting therapies such as music, speech, play and occupational therapy (OT); and biomedical interventions.

VanDerHorst-Larson also became the owner of the Minnesota Hyperbaric Treatment Center, an outpatient clinic that partners with the Holland Center to provide Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) for people with autism and other medical conditions.

HBOT has been shown to improve oxidative stress and inflammation, both features of children with autism. HBOT involves inhaling 100 percent oxygen in a pressurized chamber. HBOT resulted in improvements in motivation, speech, and cognitive awareness in a study of children with autism.  

VanDerHorst-Larson also founded Children With Autism Deserve Education (CADE), a volunteer foundation to provide education for autism for children that don’t have the funding to obtain it.

As if those pursuits weren’t enough, VanDerHorst-Larson is the CEO of two successful information technology companies. She runs Vibrant Technologies, an IT hardware reseller, and St. Croix Solutions, a provider of IT solutions.

When I called VanDerHorst-Larson last Saturday morning, she was busy working on intake appointments for the Holland Center.

Where does she get the time and energy to take care of her son, run the Holland Center and manage her businesses?

“Because Holland is more a passion for me and helps my baby and kids like him, it gives me energy,” said VanDerHorst-Larson. “Having Holland makes me happier and more successful with my other businesses. Some people have running or golf as a passion. I have Holland.”

See the full text of the interview below.

Autism

Autism is a complex neurological disorder that results in problems in communication, social skills, and restricted or repetitive interests or behaviors. Poor motor skills and coordination and sensory integration problems are also often seen in people with autism.

It is generally accepted by the medical and scientific community that autism is caused by a genetic susceptibility followed by environmental triggers. What those triggers are, however, is the subject of much debate, though there are likely multiple causes.

According to figures published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, autism now affects one in 110 children. This graph by Autism Speaks shows that the rate of autism has increased consistently in recent decades.

The Vaccine Debate

The federal government and the pharmaceutical industry vouch for the safety of vaccines. In 2004, a report by the Institute of Medicine based in Washington, D.C. stated that there was no causal link between autism and either the MMR vaccine or thimerosal, a mercury preservative formerly used in most childhood vaccines. Thimerosal was phased out of most childhood vaccines between 1999 and 2003 as a precaution but it is still present in most flu vaccines, which are recommended by the CDC for pregnant women and young children.

The Food and Drug Administration (Silver Spring, Maryland), the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, Maryland), and the CDC cite multiple studies that show no causal link exists between either the MMR vaccine and autism, or thimerosal and autism.

However, the controversy continues today and shows no signs of ending. Many researchers and parents of children with autism have maintained that a link exists between vaccines and autism. They cite the fact that symptoms of mercury poisoning mimic the symptoms of autism, dramatic behavioral and medical changes sometimes occur directly after the administration of vaccines, and the rise in autism has coincided with increases in the vaccine schedule. The CDC rapidly expanded the U.S. vaccination schedule in 1988.

Some physicians have called for more research on whether or not there may be a subset of children who are susceptible to reactions from some of the contents of vaccines. In 2008, CBS News interviewed former NIH Director Bernadine Healy, a Harvard-educated physician (see the video) and Florida Congressman Dave Weldon, also a medical doctor, on the questions surrounding vaccines and autism (see the video). Indiana Congressman Dan Burton has also called for more research on the topic.

See “Autism advocate Lyn Redwood discusses mercury vaccine controversy, chelation, treatment and recovery" for more background on vaccines and autism.

Interview

In a recent interview, VanDerHorst-Larson discussed vaccines, the onset of her son’s autism, treatments and therapies.

Mike Frandsen: When Cade was diagnosed with autism at 19 months of age, you were told that he had the most severe case of autism ever seen in the school district. How bad was it?

Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson: He lost all his speech except the word “go.” He no longer looked at us at all and wanted to bang his head against the wall constantly. He was basically unresponsive and would just cry. We could literally bang pots behind him, and he wouldn’t hear us. He didn’t respond to his name or anything verbal. During that time period he touched an electric fireplace glass that was turned off but still hot. He burned his palm because he didn’t feel the heat. We had completely lost him and his connection to the world was gone.

Mike Frandsen: Do you think vaccines led to your son’s autism?

Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson: Yes.

Mike Frandsen: What changes happened to Cade after the shots?

Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson: My son was a typically developing child, although we struggled with ear infections, thrush and colic. He had reached or surpassed all milestones until 15 months. Following his 15-month vaccines (measles-mumps-rubella, flu, and chicken pox), he was crying and passed out in the car on the way home. He slept 14 hours. He woke up a different child in 24 hours. He became irritable and upset. He stopped communicating and making eye contact. He began to only cry and pull me by the hand. He began to have subclinical seizures almost every three seconds. Within three months of that day he lost all his skills and had only one word left: “go.”

Mike Frandsen: Do you believe it was the mercury in the vaccines, the MMR, a combination of both or something else?

Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson: I believe it was a combination of both. My son had quite a few vaccines containing thimerosal. He was also a Rhogam baby.

Mike Frandsen: Lyn Redwood (of SafeMinds) said the same thing. Her blood type was Rh-negative so she had to get injections of Gamulin, which had thimerosal in it, at 14 weeks gestation and 20 weeks. Was that the same for you?

Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson: Yes, but I had mine at 12 weeks, 20 weeks and immediately after giving birth. I breast fed so it went straight to my breast milk to Cade.

Cade also has a deleted gene for glutathione. I believe the mercury was stressing his immune system and that caused the MMR to cause him problems. I believe the MMR caused him to have an infection in his brain and caused his seizures.

Mike Frandsen: What did you think was wrong at first?

Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson: I knew immediately something happened to him from the shots. I didn’t know what but I knew it hurt him.

Mike Frandsen: How do you respond to the fact that the government says the fact that the autism rate continued to increase after thimerosal was removed from childhood vaccines shows that thimerosal could not have caused autism?

Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson: I believe that by replacing it with aluminum they are still causing autism.

Mike Frandsen: How frustrating is it when people disrespect your position but don’t bother to look into the issues for themselves?

Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson: It is very frustrating. I advocate for education. I tell people don’t listen to me. Learn yourself what you are injecting into your child. Look at all the research by independent researchers, not just pharmaceutical companies.

Mike Frandsen: What has the Holland Center done for Cade?

Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson: Holland is everything I wanted for my child. It is outstanding teaching in the safest environment. Our staff is extensively trained and we have years of experience on our team. We have Board Certified Behavior Analysts full-time for supervision of all programming that work along with our psychologists. It is a non-toxic, chemical-free environment. It is gluten-free, casein-free (GFCF) and peanut-free. We offer ABA, speech therapy, OT, music, dance, HBOT, and full biomedical consulting. My goal is to have the best therapies, integrated with biomedical options in one location that is non-toxic and safe for the children.

My son needed the direct teaching method to get on the right path. The play therapies & Relationship Development Intervention are great and may be more useful now that he is nine, but when he was just diagnosed we had to start over with teaching him everything. ABA started with that imitation piece and started to help him to communicate again.

Mike Frandsen: What role does your husband play in the Holland Center?

Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson: My husband is supportive of Holland in every way. He’s not involved in the day-to-day operations of Holland, but he helps whenever we need his assistance.

Mike Frandsen: How does HBOT therapy work for kids with autism?

Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson: Oxygen is healing. The pure oxygen in the hard chamber combined with the higher-pressure forces oxygen into the cells. It can help repair cells and tissues that have been injured.

Mike Frandsen: Has HBOT therapy helped detoxify Cade?

Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson: HBOT helped raise Cade’s glutathione levels. We could see that on a lab. His levels skyrocketed on the lab following HBOT. We didn’t change anything in his supplements or diet. That surely would help Cade’s detoxification. Cade did amazingly well in HBOT. He is back in the chamber right now. His fine motor, social skills, articulation and communication all improved.

Mike Frandsen: Is there any hope that HBOT therapy will be covered by insurance for autism?

Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson: There’s hope as research continues to support it. I would hope that as doctors continue to identify the subset of kids with autism that there will be biomarkers and definitive characteristics which can point to which children will benefit from HBOT.

Mike Frandsen: Are there any studies that point to HBOT as being effective?

Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson: Dr. Dan Rossignol has conducted studies that show the benefits of HBOT for autism.

Mike Frandsen: Do you see more acceptance by the medical community as time goes on that there are biomedical causes and treatments for autism and that kids can get better?

Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson: I’ve seen much more acceptance here in the eight years since Cade was diagnosed. Doctors even in traditional settings are recognizing that the children have many medical issues, and this is clearly not a psychological disorder alone. I’ve spent many hours talking with physicians to explain that autism is labeled from a set of symptoms, but what causes those symptoms may be different in every child. Progress is definitely happening.

Mike Frandsen: How is your son doing now?

Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson: My son is doing very well. We were told to institutionalize him at 19 months because he was so severe and had such behavior challenges. We’ve come a long way from that day. He does very well communicating. He is not conversational and doesn’t answer questions, but he can verbalize his wants and needs.

Since HBOT he has begun writing. He is very happy and affectionate. He might never become independent but through therapy and medical treatments he has continued to improve steadily. My hope is for him to be able to have a job as an adult. I believe in the right setting he will be able to do that very well. We don’t know yet what the best outcome is for Cade. We continue to hope and pray for more improvements and skills as treatment options are being uncovered to help our kids.

Mike Frandsen: What advice would you give parents on what they should do to try to help their kids?

Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson: That’s a tough question because every child is different. I give different parents different advice depending on their child and where they are on the spectrum or what kind of symptoms they exhibit.

My general advice is that they immediately connect with a doctor that specializes in autism and has been to trainings such as the Defeat Autism Now! trainings. I tell all parents to try the GFCF diet. I try to educate parents so they are good consumers to understand the differences between teaching approaches such as ABA/VB or play therapies. At that point, they can decide what they feel is the best type of program to start. I also try to help them be able to evaluate the services. The spectrum is so broad that there’s not one approach that is best for all.

Mike Frandsen: What directions do you think autism research should go toward?

Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson: I believe it should go in two major directions: 1) subsets of children to help guide treatment, and 2) genetics to identify predispositions to environmental factors such as vaccines. If children have genetic mutations in detoxification of metals, methylation or other factors that are found compromised in so many of our children, then they should not be candidates for vaccinations.

Also see: Part 1 – Autism advocate Lyn Redwood discusses mercury vaccine controversy, chelation, treatment and recovery.

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