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Evidence on autism treatment with the Dr. Tomato Protocol
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Dr. Tomato Protocol Research & Evidence
On January 4, 2023, Dr. Tomato and a research team from the Korean Medical Science Research Department published a case study on Korean herbal medicine treatment for pediatric autism spectrum disorder in the international journal “Frontiers in Neurology (IF 4.086).
Integrative Treatment Program for the Treatment of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Prospective Observational Case Series
This clinical study is of great significance as it is the first clinical case report in which autism improved with Korean herbal medicine as the primary treatment, though it was integrated with DIR Floortime and Sensory Improvement Therapy.
However, the results presented in this research are as the Tomato protocol was clinically generated before completion; some limitations are listed below.
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First, only the gluten casein diet was applied for dietary treatment in a very low level, hence the effectiveness of the dietary therapy was significantly limited. Under the current protocol, Dr. Tomato strictly applies the gluten casein diet and carbohydrate restriction diet.
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Second, it shows results purely from Korean herbal medicine treatment without applying nutritional therapies. In Dr. Tomato’s protocol, nutritional therapies play a very important role in controlling inflammatory response in the central nervous system caused by the over-proliferation of intestinal bacteria. Nutritional therapies are necessary to prevent the relapse of degeneration in the course of Korean herbal medicine treatment and significantly increases the cure rate.
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Third, there were errors in the selection of the subjects, and the 18 subjects included patients with severe intellectual disabilities and epilepsy. Also, the age of the subjects were slightly higher than the overall average, hence the cure rate was lower than what it is generally expected for the protocol.
Despite these limitations, the cure rate presented in this primary paper outperforms conventional treatments. The current Dr. Tomato protocol clearly outdoes the cure rate presented in the primary paper, which is described below.
Complete recovery is defined as betterment from autism and autism spectrum to non-autism spectrum in ADOS test
In the ADOS test, it is shown that there is 22% complete recovery after a 6-month treatment
CARS score improved from ≥ 30 to < 30 in more than 70%
Average improvement of 6 points after 6-month treatment
For accuracy, betterment to < 25 CARS score should be considered recovery from autism spectrum
33% complete recovery, i.e., CARS score improved to < 25
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Estimated cure rate of autism with Dr. Tomato’s protocol
Following Dr. Tomato’s protocol for autism treatment will produce a significant betterment in 90% of cases of autism spectrum disorders. The remaining 10% represents children with structuralized brain damages. Significant betterment will be visible typically in three months. Still, significant betterment does not guarantee a recovery to normal. The biggest challenge to recovery to normal is intellectual impairment and learning difficulties.
Autistic degeneration is progressive, i.e., intellectual impairment becomes more severe as the child gets older. Even if the child has showed significant betterment by following Dr. Tomato’s protocol, recovery to normal will not be viable if the child remains intellectually impaired. Damages to intelligence and learning abilities tend to aggravate over time. Dr. Tomato’s clinical experience shows that significant intellectual impairment progresses before 5 years of age in approximately 30% of children. At 10 years of age, nearly 40% of children will have fixed intellectual impairment.
However, in Asperger children with good language and learning abilities, significant betterment will lead to recovery to normal regardless of age. In other words, Asperger children would not experience severe degeneration over time. Therefore, it is thought that children diagnosed with ASD and are classified with Asperger syndrome would be able to recover to normal regardless of age.
Autism
The estimated cure rates for children with severe language and sensory disorders and social disorders are as shown below.
Child’s age: % recovery to neurotypical
6 – 36 months: 90%
36 – 60 months: 70%
60 – 120 months: 60%
Asperger syndrome
Children with autism spectrum who have normal language and cognitive abilities but exhibit social disorders due to sensory disorders. As Asperger syndrome is not accompanied by intellectual impairment, the recovery to neurotypical can be expected in most cases. However, if the patient is 20 years or older, a considerable amount of time will be needed to recover from severe unskilledness in social interactions.
2 years – 20 years: Recoverable to neurotypical in more than 95%
Older than 20 years: Significant improvement can be achieved but a considerable amount of time is needed.
