Two years ago, the program N Investigate investigated the doctor’s claims Jose Ernesto Fadulwho claimed to “cure” the autism through a treatment based on vitamins and amino acids that he sold directly in his office.
At that time, the capsules were analyzed, specialists were consulted and it was verified that their contents corresponded to over-the-counter nutritional supplements. The program also documented possible violations of the General Health Law because of the way these products were dispensed.
In 2024, the Dr. Fadul If it was true that it “cured” the autism and he responded that he had a treatment that made children talk, improve their behavior, and socialize. He was also asked if there was a scientific study he based his treatment on, and he said he was “testing, testing, testing,” using essential acids and vitamins. And he stated that those amino acids and vitamins did not harm children. “Everything about vitamins and amino acids is food… what I do is scientific,” he said.
Given these statements, specialists were consulted to determine if there are recognized, indexed and validated studies that support the effectiveness of amino acids and vitamins for the cure of autism. He Dr. Fadul He acknowledged that he had not read any proven scientific article, in any serious medical journal, that talks about curing autism solely with amino acids or vitamins. “I have no scientific evidence that autism can be cured with these two nutritional elements,” he admitted.
The story didn’t end there. Today new complaints are emerging, this time from the United States. Parents of children diagnosed on the autism spectrum claim to have paid considerably higher sums for the same treatment, sending money from abroad in the hope of accessing the supposed “cure.” American doctors who have heard of these cases warn that there is no scientific evidence to support such claims and that, according to the families, no verifiable clinical results have been observed after months of use.
“He Dr. Fadul He charges five hundred dollars for ninety days of medicine. I bought it for six months, that is, one hundred and eighty days. He charged me a thousand dollars. Payment is in cash and dollars, and he is paid himself. He doesn’t allow the secretary to be paid,” says the father of a patient.
Fadul continues to treat children without a formal medical evaluation, clinical records are not reviewed, nor updated diagnostic tests are applied. The consultation, parents say, lasts just minutes and is done online.
The father of a patient assures: “That is the fastest consultation I have ever seen in my life. He sees a hundred or so patients between eight in the morning and twelve at noon. If you do the math, the average would be a consultation of approximately two minutes. ‘Do you have a child with autism?’ Yes. ‘Well look, I’ll sell you this pill.’ And there the consultation ended. I personally didn’t see any results. What I was noticing was a setback. I saw him more in limbo, less active, less looking. That’s why I stopped the medication.”
What really worries these parents is not just the financial loss, but the emotional impact. They speak of manipulated hope, of illusion sold as certainty, of a promise that becomes a hook for families who live searching for answers.
More than 40 pediatricians and specialists who serve Latino communities in New York City have been forced to group together due to the growing number of cases of families who travel or send money to the Dominican Republic in search of this treatment and who, months later, claim to have been deceived.
“Our concern is that what these children need is therapy and many parents interrupt these therapies to go to the Dominican Republic to receive a treatment that is not proven, because to our knowledge what the parents have not said is that they give them some bottles with some substances which are not even properly marked what they are, what medicines they are and to this day there is no medicine that cures autism,” says Dr. Molina.
Dr. Tapia, an intensivist pediatrician, points out this: “our people tend to take treatments that do not have any scientific proof, we know that what is sold is hope when what patients need is follow-up.”
Specialists insist on a fundamental point: autism is not a curable disease. It is a neurological developmental disorder and they claim that patients who have returned from the Dominican Republic after this treatment have not had any improvement.
In this regard, Dr. Molina speaks: “I have another girl who is very unfortunate in this case, because at 21 months she was very early intervention, the mother did not want to, I had to convince her, she agreed to do the evaluations and in the middle of the evaluations she decided not to continue with the evaluations. She went to the Dominican Republic and now I see her at three years old and she tells me that she is waiting for an appointment, that she was so happy that she got an appointment for August.”
But the debate is not limited to whether it works or not. Doctors warn that administering medications or supplements without knowing exactly their composition can represent a real risk to the child’s health. Especially in patients who cannot report side effects.
Dr. Grullón says: “they can cause liver cancer or kidney problems or liver problems, and we do not want to treat a disorder and then also have to treat consequences of the medications that are being given or that the child ends up having to transplant a liver or transplant a kidney.”
N Investigate confirmed that the pills prescribed by Fadul are simply vitamin B.
“I sometimes recommend vitamin B12 and magnesium to patients; we do know that, for example, magnesium helps them relax; however, even if they are minerals or supplements, we children have to be sure that they are healthy,” says Dr. Grullón, a child psychiatrist.
The hope of parents for a miraculous cure is supported on the networks by positive testimonies of supposed cures or improvement.
“Those are people who he pays for advertising and they make those videos, but then you realize that it’s not true,” says the father of a child.
Dr. Núñez: “Everything that is on social media is not true, that is a very important thing, that is, asking, educating yourself, seeking a second opinion.”
The specialists were asked if they know of a single proven clinical case that has improved with this treatment.
Dr. Molina assured: “No, none. There is not a single case that has improved. I saw a case where a Mexican family was told why they didn’t take their children to the Dominican Republic because they were cured there.”
And against the argument that treatment in the United States is expensive, the medical response is clear: intervention, from the first stage of diagnosis to education, is free through federal programs.
Doctor Molina: “Here we call you Early Intervention Program… It is a federal program with federal funds for up to three years. They even go to the house to give therapies to those who qualify. There are other children who can go to special schools until they are three or four years old. And then, when they are at the preschool level, those children receive their free therapies through the department of education.”
Faced with this scenario, the specialists make a direct call to Dr. Fadul and urge him to act responsibly towards a particularly vulnerable community.
Dr. Molina: “I would ask the Dr. Fadul “Don’t continue to offer false hope, speak clearly to your parents, advise them on therapies, that there is no diet or dietary supplement that has been proven.”
Two years ago, the same promise was heard: a supposed “cure” where science says there is none. Today, the complaints not only continue, but cross borders. Parents who pay in dollars, consultations that take minutes, medications without clear protocols and children who, according to their own families, do not improve… or even regress.
He autism It is not a miraculously reversible disease. It is a complex condition that requires early intervention and clinical follow-up, not extravagant speeches and false hopes. The question is no longer whether someone believes they have the cure, it is: who protects families when desperation becomes a market? Because playing with the hope of vulnerable parents is not medicine. It’s something else.
date: 2026-02-15 02:12:00