Myelin Sheath and Autism

Post Reply New Topic

I just love this website...so many interesting thoughts and ideas...I am learning alot here.

Sophist-

I just took a look at your website...I am impressed! Keep up the good work!

I think vitamin B6 helps repair myelin. 20 scientific studies, including 13 double-blind placebo-controlled trials, concluded that vitamin B6 is effective at treating autism. http://www.autism.com/treatable/supplem ... tudies.htm

From MedlinePlus:
"Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) is required for the synthesis of the neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine, and for myelin formation." http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/drug ... nt-b6.html

Let's look at what the symptoms for myelin loss are:

* Blurriness in the central visual field that affects only one eye; may be accompanied by pain upon eye movement
* Double vision
* Odd sensation in legs, arms, chest, or face, such as tingling or numbness (neuropathy)
* Weakness of arms or legs
* Cognitive disruption including speech impairment, memory loss
* Heat sensitivity (symptoms worsen, reappear upon exposure to heat such as a hot shower)
* Loss of dexterity
* Difficulty coordinating movement or balance disorder
* Difficulty controlling bowel movements or urination
* Fatigue

Almost none of it looks like autism to me. Speech impairment is certainly part of autism for some people, but you don't have to be speech impaired to be on the spectrum. The coordination problems could fit autism, but I think this refers to serious problems with walking and moving. That's not typical of autism, except for Rett's I suppose. Has anyone ever seen the movie "Lorenzo's Oil"? It's about a family in which the boy has adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), a degenerative disease involving loss of myelin. ALD has very little in common with autism, and I think that's instructive. Sorry, but to me it sounds pretty unlikely.

I experience autism as regular short-circuiting in the wiring of my brain. Very occasionally wires connect properly and I am able to think clearly and precisely. They're my very memorable 'brainwave' moments. Recent research findings that the cause of autism is linked to thyroid dysfunction in the mother rings very true for me. In my mother it would have been the result of growing up in poverty and not eating properly. I have a goitre (enlarged thyroid) that I believe is also the result of not eating properly, but caused by my inability to organise myself as a result of poor executive function of my Asperger brain. I'm overwhelmed at present by all the reading I've just done about it, but I think there is a connection between the thyroid and formation of myelin.

Wow - just found this stuff I wrote back in 2008 after have a dream that the cause of autism was due to the brain shorting out because in some areas the myelin sheath (wiring covering in our brain and body) was thinning. Now thinking of doing my research paper for grad school on it, so I started to reseach and found this site and some other interesting research.

In a study by the International Society for Autism Research, the relationship between myelin content and clinical symptom severity was compared in young adult subjects with autism and a control group without autism. By using MRI techniques, researchers found that individuals with autism had significantly less myelin content in numerous brain regions and white matter tracts. The frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes were affected, and the white matter tract most affected was the corpus collosum, or the area in between the brain that connects the regions with neural fibers. Those individuals with more severe symptoms also showed less myelin content in various brain regions than those with less severe autism.

The conclusion of this study is that individuals with autism do have significantly reduced myelin content in many regions of the brain, which points to myelin content as a factor contributing to social and intellectual development in individuals with autism.

While this research investigated young adults, the possibility of detecting autism by looking at white matter and myelin is possible through MRIs even at a younger age. In other studies, children with autism at six months of age had dense white matter, but by age two the condition reversed, and white matter thinned out. These studies also point out that it is not just one region of the brain that is affected, but rather the change occurs in many areas.

These studies continue to link autism to abnormal white matter and impaired connectivity of neural

Hello Laura. Thank you for sharing your dream. I intuitively feel autism is about chemical charges not occurring the brain. When they do i feel so alert and alive it shocks me. The clarity i get. So i agree with you. We all have to keep an open mind on causation and not pounce on left field ideas and rip them to shreds because they are not evidence based.

FYI: This thread was started 11 years ago, and the OP last posted in it 5 years ago. Why resurrect it today?

Demyelination is the loss of the myelin sheath insulating the nerves, and is the hallmark of some neurodegenerative autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, neuromyelitis optica, transverse myelitis, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, Guillain–Barré syndrome, central pontine myelinosis, inherited demyelinating diseases such as leukodystrophy, and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.

Typical symptoms include blurriness in the central visual field that affects only one eye, may be accompanied by pain upon eye movement, double vision, loss of vision/hearing, odd sensation in legs, arms, chest, or face, such as tingling or numbness (neuropathy), weakness of arms or legs, cognitive disruption, including speech impairment and memory loss, heat sensitivity (symptoms worsen or reappear upon exposure to heat, such as a hot shower), loss of dexterity, difficulty coordinating movement or balance disorder, difficulty controlling bowel movements or urination, fatigue, and tinnitus.

I don't see "Autism" anywhere in the last two paragraphs. Although some of the symptoms may occur in both autism spectrum disorders and demyelination disorders, there is no empirical evidence the two disorders are causally related.

Thank you for the information. The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney has been struck down with Guilluam-Barre Syndrome and it is definitely not like autism. I empathise with the lady who had the dream. I intuitively feel my autism is a short circuiting of electrical circuits or charges in my brain. I sense or 'know' that. If someone asks me what is Aspergers that is what i say. Trying to make it as simple as i can. Please respect that lady's views.