[Clodfobble]

Based on what I know, I'd consider it, but I'd have to meet with him individually and discuss things with him to know for sure. He is following a general treatment path that I agree with; however, like any medical procedure, it's entirely possible to screw it up in very dangerous ways. The thing that is novel is not the treatments he's using, but rather what he's using them for. Chelation drugs have been around forever, and are the standard accepted treatment for known cases of heavy metal poisoning. Anti-inflammatories are accepted as routine for a host of diseases. Mitochondrial dysfunction has likewise been on the medical books for decades. The only "alternative" part about it is that he (and hundreds of other doctors around the country) is using these treatments on conditions that are not generally accepted to be rooted in heavy metal poisoning, or inflammation, or metabolic imbalance. But there are of course lab tests to definitively confirm these conditions, and responsible doctors in Dr. Buttar's field perform them and treat based on their results. (On the other hand, it's been my experience that mainstream doctors will refuse to even consider testing for these other, known conditions, because that would be a tacit admission that they could somehow be connected to the neurological symptoms, which is a great big political minefield that they all want to avoid.)

So I would need to find out what sort of tests he runs and what medical justification he uses for each treatment. For example, there are some DAN doctors who will immediately prescribe antifungals for any autistic child who comes to see them, because that is a commonly needed treatment. But if they are not running the stool and urine cultures to determine that there actually is an infection, what strain it is, and what is the most appropriate drug and dosage to use in that case--which is something I can (and would continue to do, in this hypothetical case) confirm with other mainstream doctors, even while they shake their heads at the lab reports and marvel at what a complete coincidence it is that my son happened to have all these underlying conditions like I said he did--then I would not let him treat my child.

Actual conversation with my pediatrician:

Me: So if I brought my daughter to you, and said that I caught her eating paint off an old building, what would you do?
Her: Well, we'd want to run some tests on the paint to see if it contained lead.
Me: What if we ran across it on our vacation, hundreds of miles away, and you couldn't test the paint?
Her: In that case we would need to go ahead and test her for lead poisoning.
Me: How would you do that?
Her: The only way to do it would be to give her a small amount of the drugs used to pull lead out of the body, and if elevated levels of lead came out in her urine, then we'd know she needed to continue to be on those drugs until it was gone.
Me: So if I showed you a lab report that showed she had a bunch of lead in her system, you would be totally fine with treating that?
Her: Yes, that would be proof the paint had lead in it.
Me: What if I lied, and she hadn't eaten any paint?
Her: Well the lab test would then show--
Me: No, the lab test still shows she has tons of lead in her system, but I'm telling you she didn't come in contact with any major known sources of lead in the last few weeks.
Her: Well the lead must have come from somewhere.
Me: Right. So would you order the tests for her right now?
Her: No, if she isn't showing symptoms of lead poisoning, and you didn't see her come in contact with any, then there's no point in ordering the test.
Me: What are the symptoms of lead poisoning?
Her: Well, they're hard to detect, but things like confusion, abdominal problems, cognitive problems...
Me: My daughter has all those things.
Her: But your daughter has autism, so that explains them.
Me: So if I got another doctor to order the lab tests, and brought them to you, would you be willing to treat her for lead poisoning then, if the tests showed she needed it?
Her: Well... no I would recommend you have that doctor treat her. I'm not going to be comfortable treating her for a condition I know she doesn't have.
Me: Even if the lab tests--the same lab tests you would order if I lied and said she had eaten lead paint--showed she did have the condition?
Her: Yes.

Assuming Dr. Buttar is responsible in his use of testing, the only difference between him and the rest of the medical community is he's actually bothering to investigate what might be wrong, rather than writing it off as something tragic and unknowable.