From: woodgold@emr1.emr.ca (Cathy Woodgold)
Subject: DMG, vitamin B15
Organization: Energy, Mines, and Resources, Ottawa
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 21:16:01 GMT


Dimethylglycine (DMG) can help autistic people.  It is also known as
pangamic acid or vitamin B15.  According to Bernard Rimland in an 
article in the Autism Research Review International, DMG resembles 
the B vitamins in many ways -- it is found in the same foods, 
for example.

The following is quoted from that article.

"In 1965, two Russian investigators .. published a report showing
considerable improvement in the speech of 12 of a group of 15
mentally handicapped children who had not been able to communicate.
The children had been treated with ... 'vitamin B15'.  
In addition to enriched vocabulary, the children began to use 
simple sentences, their general mental state improved, and
there was better concentration and interest in toys and games.

"...I am now so firmly convinced that DMG is helpful to a substantial
proportion of autistic children and adults that I have decided to
'go public'...

"...no adverse side effects have been found with even massive
intakes of DMG.

"...A parent can buy 30 tablets for about $8.00.  That is a sufficient
supply, even for an adult given three or more tablets a day, to
determine, in most cases, if it will be helpful.  If it is felt
to be helpful, fine.  If not, you have wasted $8.00 (except for
the boost given to the immune system).  [DMG has been shown to
increase antibody production in humans by 400%.]

"...I have numerous letters in my files saying, 'Johnny's speech 
therapist says he has made more progress in the last two weeks 
than in the last six months.  As you suggested, we had told no 
one at his school that we were trying DMG.'

"If DMG is going to work, its effects will usually be seen within
about a week or so, though it should be tried for a few weeks or
a month before giving up.  In some cases dramatic results have been
seen within 24 hours:  A Los Angeles mother was driving on the
freeway, three-year-old Kathy in the back seat, five-year-old mute
autistic son Sammy in the front.  DMG had been started the day 
before.  Kathy began to cry.  Sammy turned and spoke his first
words: "Don't cry, Kathy."  The mother, stunned, almost crashed the
car.

"A similar case: A Texas mother secured her six-year-old mute autistic
daughter in the front seat, then, before driving off, turned to tell
her husband, "I'll drop Mary at the babysitter's house first."  Mary,
on DMG for two days, startled her parents with her first words:  
'No! No babysitter!'

"...Lee Dae Kun ... tried DMG on 39 autistic children, ages three to 
seven, for three months, with the following (summarized) results:
    Benefits seen:
      Yes...........31  (80%)
      No.............8  (20%)
          (Improved speech, eating,
          excretion, willingness, etc.)
      8 children had difficulty sleeping for weeks 1 and 2.
      6 children became more active for weeks 1 and 2.
"...the parents, usually skeptical, saw the improvements clearly.

"DMG certainly doesn't always help, and it certainly is not a cure,
but it is certainly worth trying, in my humble opinion."  (In mine, too.)

Copies of this article can be obtained from Wholesale Nutrition,
P.O. box 3345, Saratoga, CA 95070-1345.  I am not a representative of
that company;  just a customer -- I buy my vitamin C from them.
They also sell DMG:  $16.00 for 130 capsules of 125 mg as 169 mg DMG - HCl.

If you try it, let me know whether it works for you or not.

Cathy Woodgold
woodgold@seismo.emr.ca  OR  woodgold@emr1.emr.ca

This message is from me personally and does not represent the
policy of any organization.


Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU