Elevated Cytokines Must be Treated

Posted By Braverman IVF & Reproductive Immunology || 20-Sep-2012

I am addressing this question, particularly because of all the discussion on the blogosphere in response to The New York Times article on August 29th by Moises Velasquez-Manoff, "An Immune Disorder at the Root of Autism".

Braverman IVF & Reproductive Immunology is the only Center in New York State, to date, to have been authorized to use “reproductive” and “immunology” in its name, and we were only granted the name after proving our extensive expertise in each field. At our infertility center we specialize in finding the causes and treatments for infertility and recurrent pregnancy loss. For this very reason, I have studied many different inflammatory diseases and I have found through treating my patients evidence suggesting that inflammation during pregnancy may be a contributing factor in autism. I have treated patients for over 20 years, and I have found that patients who come to my practice for infertility care, and they have a child that is on the autism spectrum, often when tested do have elevated cytokines (the cells that cause the inflammation). These cytokines that are stirring up all the online controversy about autism really are dangerous if elevated during pregnancy. I treat elevated cytokines during the first trimester. The end result is that we are finding that these new babies, whose mothers’ were treated for inflammatory conditions during their pregnancy, as they grow are not exhibiting any of the early symptoms of autism. We are able to make this correlation strictly on the basis of what we have observed over the years in treating patients at our practice.


At Braverman IVF & Reproductive Immunology my medical team and I have looked extensively at the effects of inflammatory cytokines during pregnancy on both the mother and baby. One thing we are sure of is that these cytokines need to be monitored, and when they are elevated they must be treated and lowered to prevent miscarriage. At our practice we are continuing to monitor these cases and following the development of the babies. We are hoping that over time we will be able to definitively assess if there is a direct link between the untreated inflammatory cytokines and autism.

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