"       But like many other parents of the more than 500,000 children that the Centers for Disease Control estimates to be autistic in the U.S., Wong has vowed to keep trying until she pinpoints the treatment that most helps her kids."

"       Her latest attempt is one of the most long-shot therapies yet, a protocol some doctors praise but that others declare to be a waste of time that gives desperate parents false hope and exploits them financially."

"       It is called hyperbaric oxygen therapy, a treatment in which pure oxygen is delivered to patients confined to pressurized chambers for an hour a day for several weeks. The theory is that extreme doses of oxygen — essentially the same kind of treatment used for decades to cure divers with decompression illness — would spur dormant or damaged neurons in the brain to become reinvigorated or even transformed."

"       In the case of children with autism, considered the fastest-growing developmental disability in the U.S. today, the new treatment is claimed to have produced some stunning results: transforming nonverbal children into fluent speakers; helping children hypersensitive to outside stimuli become calm enough to attend public schools; changing kids once averse to any personal interaction or touching into affectionate toddlers."

"       "I don't know what to expect from this," Wong said, "but the minute I heard about the upcoming trial, I called and got my kids on the list. I feel like it's worth a shot.""

"       "I understand that what all parents want is to be able to look back and say they did everything they possibly could to help their child," said Dr. Tina Iyama, professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an expert on autism. "That's why they are trying all these experimental new treatments. But ... there is absolutely no reason to think that improving oxygen levels in a child with autism will be helpful.""

"       The debate over hyperbaric oxygen therapy, or HBOT, illustrates the fault lines over autism, a disorder that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates afflicts as many as 1 in every 150 children in America. Because there is no medical consensus on what causes autism, there also is little agreement on how best to treat it."

"       Some doctors who believe that the components of childhood vaccines, such as mercury, have been responsible for many cases of autism advocate detoxification programs in which children take chemicals that bind with metals in the body and force them out through urine. Others promote gluten-free diets under the theory that autistic children have high levels of a certain type of yeast in their digestive tracts. And then there are the proponents of HBOT, which has gained a following among parents who claim it has helped children with neurological problems, including cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, encephalitis and, most recently, autism."

"       Inside an office in an industrial section of Honolulu is the Hyperbaric Medicine Center. The first stop on the tour by Maryellen Markley, its patient care coordinator, is in front of two color brain scans that she said show the profound results of HBOT. The first scan, she said, reveals that an autistic child had decreased       blood flow and profound neuro-inflammation before the oxygen therapy."

"       "Look at how much has changed in the second scan," Markley said, pointing. "Better blood flow, less inflammation, more connections between the two sides of the brain. This child, a 6-year-old, was completely nonverbal since the age of one-and-a-half, and after 66 hours of hyperbaric oxygen therapy was talking again.""

"       Markley said she has treated more than 30 autistic children with HBOT and "every single child ... had consistent quality-of-life improvements." The improvements, she said, were more pronounced in kids most afflicted by the characteristics of autism: the repetitive behaviors and the impairments in sensory perception, social interaction and communication."

"       Critics argue that no studies have been done that use scientific models such a double-blind testing. They caution that the treatment has been tried only on a handful of autistic children nationwide, not nearly enough to draw valid conclusions."

"       Evidence is exactly what supporters of HBOT are hoping to get in the coming months. Beginning in May, the Honolulu clinic, along with about 20 hyperbaric oxygen clinics across the U.S., will launch a formal study into how autistic children respond to the therapy. About 400 children will be studied, and the results are to be evaluated by the National Institutes for Health."

"       Other studies are under way. One of the biggest is a federally funded study on the effects of HBOT on children with cerebral palsy at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio."

"       One group watching the outcomes of these studies is the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society, a non-profit group of doctors that investigates scientific claims linked to HBOT. Thus far the group has been skeptical of using HBOT to help neurological
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