Homeopaths are offering 'fake' autism cures: Watchdog calls for probe into therapy which claims the disability is caused by vaccines and can be healed with vitamin C

  • The National Autistic Society criticised the therapy which prescribes Vitamin C
  • Officials have said that the CEASE therapy 'implies the ability to cure autism'
  • Similar claims about vaccines made by Andrew Wakefield have been discredited 

The National Autistic Society has strongly criticised CEASE therapy, which is based on the belief that vaccines contribute to autism

The National Autistic Society has strongly criticised CEASE therapy, which is based on the belief that vaccines contribute to autism

Homeopaths across the UK are offering a ‘bogus’ therapy that claims to heal autism.

The National Autistic Society has strongly criticised CEASE therapy, which is based on the belief that vaccines contribute to autism and prescribes massive amounts of vitamin C to ‘nourish the brain’.

The Professional Standards Authority, which oversees homeopaths, has said it is concerned that CEASE - which stands for Complete Elimination of Autistic Spectrum Expression - ‘strongly implies the ability to cure autism’.

Invented by Dutch doctor Tinus Smits, who died in 2010, the therapy is practised by dozens of homeopaths in Britain.

The CEASE website states that the therapy involves ‘erasing’ the ‘imprint’ of toxic substances which cause autism.

The disease is 70 per cent caused by vaccines, it is claimed, although similar claims by British doctor Andrew Wakefield in 1998 have been totally discredited.

Carol Povey, of the National Autistic Society, said: ‘CEASE therapy really does take advantage of families when they are at their most vulnerable, after getting a diagnosis of autism.

‘Parents can fall prey to snake oil salesmen at that time, and this kind of therapy could be harmful for children.’

The disease is 70 per cent caused by vaccines, it is claimed, although similar claims by British doctor Andrew Wakefield (pictured) in 1998 have been totally discredited

The disease is 70 per cent caused by vaccines, it is claimed, although similar claims by British doctor Andrew Wakefield (pictured) in 1998 have been totally discredited

The Professional Standards Authority is requiring the Society of Homeopaths to review the risks of CEASE, expressing concerns over its websites’ advice that ‘autistic children should never again be vaccinated.’

It says homeopaths’ advice to multiply 1,000mg of vitamin C by a child’s age and give them that dose daily contradicts NHS advice that 1,000mg of the vitamin causes stomach pain and diarrhoea.

The advice to give autistic children 10 to 30mg of zinc a day depending on their age risks anaemia and weakening of the bones.

The Society of Homeopaths could not be reached for comment, but a minority of its members are said to be CEASE therapists. 

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