The surprising body part that could be causing Autism

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thanks for posting this and your thread in your sig, thats so helpful and interesting.

about ten years ago now, when I did the atkins diet to loose weight, I was worried as I heard you feel awful and heard it was bad and unhealthy, only to find after a day I felt the best I had in my life! Gone were the crippleing stomach cramps, my eczema was retreating, felt awake and alive, briming full of energy, over the next few weeks I became yeast infection free for the first time I could remember and my cystic acne which I had had for 16 years left.

Every time I eat gluten and dairy I feel Ive smoked weed or taken heroin- so dopey and sluggish, my acne comes back and I have terrible guts and eczema.

I will definately add in some big doses of probiotics.

at meet ups Ive met quite a lot of aspies with similar allergy and bad guts in themselves and their families and loads say they avoid gluten or feel bad from it. Also they seem to be the ones who like me have lots of aspies in their family and so a strong genetic componant.

Stress can also cause tummy troubles, its not necessarily caused by Autism directly, but could very well be due to other factors related to Autism, like stress due to certain impairments, and also to the reactions of others, including sometimes our own parents.

If your symptoms disappeared after changing your diet I am pretty convinced that your brain was perfectly normal to begin with, contrary to, for example, Temple Grandin and Daniel Tammet's brains. Their brains are "wired" differently than a "normal" brain, a diet won't change that.

On the other hand, after years of being autistic, even if due to certain chemical reactions and/or to a bacteria, even if the person didn't have an autistic brain to begin with, maybe the brain does become "wired differently" at some point, I have no idea whether this is possible or not. To illustrate my thought a little bit, for example if you were put on a drug that inhibited your hearing, maybe your vision would become better, or vice versa, and this would possibly be observable through a scan of your brain (for example your visual cortex might have developped more than usual, etc).

But either way, it is scientifically observable that some people were born with autistic brains, while others were born with normal brains (maybe there was differences that our science is not advanced enough to detect tho, who knows) and became autistic later on. And if this 2nd type(s) of Autism is indeed due to chemical reactions and/or bacteria, it might explain why some children can have "normal" brains and no symptoms of Autism, but become autistic later on (not excluding children who might have normal brain when they are born but still show signs of Autism early on).

What causes Autism while you are still in your mother's womb tho, is another story, there is probably different factors, including genetics.

Please note that I think that all this information about diets and bacterias is interesting, I simply think that it can help some people, but not all. There is probably no harm in trying the diet and see if it helps (I mean for people in general who would like to try).

P.S. Another tidbit of interesting information, from an article I have read:



I think the increased brain activity in siblings of children with autism might also be due to compensating for their sibling's autism (i.e. because they sometimes are required to be more understanding of their autistic sibling than most children would be of their siblings, and sometimes they also participate and help their autistic sibling, they do activities with them that are designed especially to help the autistic child, etc)

Relevant research:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3564498/

There is a "which came first?" problem which this paper explores. The children with ASD had a markedly different microbiome from the children without ASD. But they also noted that the children with ASD had an eating pattern which could be affecting the microbiome. (Sticking only to certain foods, mainly). Did the different microbiome precede or follow the more rigid way of eating? They don't know yet.

There may be multiple paths towards what is now being called autism, as shadi notes. I wouldn't call one more real than the other though. After all, how many people posting here had a brain scan that showed "autisitic features" as part of their diagnostic workup? Such a scan is still more research than diagnostic tool. So it is entirely possible that many people who assume they have "ASD wiring" instead have an "ASD microbiome". There is just no way to know right now because the research is about brain scans and microbiomes but the actual diagnosis is about behavior and thinking process.

So I think this research and goldfish are onto something. But here's the catch: it isn't currently really understood what should and shouldn't be eaten in order to support a specific microbiome. Giving somebody a fecal transplant or probiotics won't do anything if the transplanted/eaten bacteria can't thrive in their new home. "Eating right" has no meaning here because there isn't a known protocol about how to eat to support specific microbiomes beyond then observation that processed food doesn't work terribly well and fermented foods do. But that's pretty vague. Goldfish ha experimented and found foods that support his best microbiome (probably, theoretically) but it isn't conclusive that this transfers to everybody else.

Dantac joked about getting an extrovert's social person's microbiome transplant. It's a joke that may have some kernel of truth. What if certain microbiomes support certain neurotransmitter use in the brain over others? I eat protein for the dopamine and weirdly that seems to work but this field is still in its' infancy.

In other words, there's no scientific evidence as to which "diet" is correct for my body, or which foods will fix my IQ.



It's not dismissive as all.

Medication works. People promising "magic food" does not. And I didn't say diet didn't cause autistic symptoms, I said it didn't cause MY autistic symptoms.

I'll be happy to switch my Concerta, Risperidone, Zoloft, and Prozac when someone gives me a plant that works better.

Herbal enemas?

Thanks, but I'd rather be autistic.

Or maybe the long overdue recognition of the enteric nervous system as a second brain?
I for one have always tought with my gut first...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enteric_n ... Complexity

xfilesgeek-

Why are you using the word "diet" as if its a bad word rather than a description of the food and substances you put into your body every day? No, your exhalted "science" can't give you a menu plan that'll fix all your issues because there is no single one diet that works for every unique individual. It can evidence that the food we eat has an effect on our health, thats so beyond question its not arguable. It can also evidence the harm that pharmaceuticals cause, which are psuedo-innocently called "side effects" so that we dont worry about them too much. Medication often doesnt work. And didnt you previously say that your symptoms stay the same even though you eat well? If the symptoms are there what are the meds doing that makes you feel they "work?". Plants are not voodoo science, theyre what patentable pharmaceuticals come from or aim to mimic. There is nothing "magic" or even weird about achieving optimum health by feeding the body in an optimum for it way.

Except it is understood what to eat/do in order to clear out one's digestive tract, heal the intestinal lining, and rebalance the gut with healthy probiotic bacteria. If it wasn't, I wouldn't have been able to read all about it online & combine most of the info I read into the diet protocol I've followed.

And I agree that fecal transplants from incredibly well balanced people would likely be beneficial. Personally, if I were to ever connect with someone I thought was an ideal donor that was into the concept, I'd do it. I've already realized benefits from what I've done and the probiotics I've consumed so far, but in the name of continuous improvement I am definitely open minded about doing such a procedure in the future. It's no longer necessary as I'm functioning just fine in life, but I'd be open to it to see if it benefited me further. Obviously I'm not put off by gross science in the name of health & well being.

Yep.

If it weren't for doing 4-6L herbal enemas many times over, I wouldn't have been able to flush out my large intestine as I have. It took repeating the process several times over before the majority of the parasites were.. evicted. Diet alone would not have caused them to release their grip from the intestinal walls and flush out. Putting medicine directly to the source did the trick.

And I'd do it all again rather than keep the autistic traits that severely hindered my life.

Oh LOrd, instead of being someone's "blood brother," you're going to be their "poop brother"!

....which is fine, except I'll wait until actual science can give me specific instructions as to which specific foods are definitely going to correct my IQ imbalance and stimming.

Right now, all I'm getting is that a special diet will fix my autism, and, if it doesn't, I'm obviously eating the wrong diet. In other words, it can never be disproved.

Although, I will admit, my skepticism often does have a strong emotional component. In all honesty, the idea that ASD could be gastroneurological vs. primarily neurological is quite unsettling to me. I've become quite accepting with the idea of my brain being different, but feel like it would change everything for me if it were conclusively found to be caused entirely elsewhere in the body.

What I find better than "actual science," is actual experience.

You could try the diet I followed and either prove that it works for you, or prove that it doesn't.

Believe me, I still had sensory sensitivities, special interests, and a lack of a grasp on social interaction back when I didn't consume as much dairy. I felt healthier, but I was still definitely an aspie. I know this from life experience.

You have stumbled onto the an idea that is of much more importance then you realize. Confirmation of gut cause of Autism would mean Autism Speaks and even the anti vaccine people in a certain sense would be correct in that Autistics would be "diseased" or "poisoned" instead of our belief that we were "born this way"(As Goldfish pointed out to me earlier it would still be possible Autistics are born this way because the poison/disease was being passed on). The cure would certainly be mandated if this turns out to be the the case. Why would it not be? The central tenant of ASAN type argument that the neuromainstream world needs to accept the social "deficits" they hate in us because we are born different would be debunked. Which if you are conspiracy theorist you might just conclude that is why Autism Speaks is throwing tons of money at it. http://www.autismspeaks.org/science/sci ... n-research http://www.autismspeaks.org/science/sci ... cteria-asd http://www.autismspeaks.org/science/sci ... trong-link One of the earlier posters noted that while gut theory is now mainstream science the theory has been around along time. A year ago gut theory was around but considered an outlier. For a scientific theory to go from being considered a debunked outlier to mainstream in less then a year is astounding to me. Scientific process is usually very slow. I could be wrong about this, but I can't remember a very outlier scientific theory becoming mainstream in anything that closely resembles this speed. On the other hand one must consider that Autism Speaks would not throw this amount of money at something that is likely to be debunked.

While impossible for me to throw out the emotion it has to be noted that being a 2% minority in ways society considers most important is damm stressful and stressful almost 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Now I am being asked to believe that the belief throughout my life that GI's are often result of stress s not true, it is has been mostly the other way around all this time.

Some of gut theories as well as vaccine done it beliefs is belief in big pharma conspiracy theories. I proposed an Autism Speaks conspiracy theory. The idea that these conspiracy theories could seem in the realm of plausible is based on the reality of the really bad conspiracies by business and government that have been proven. A very sad state of affairs.

If this is the cure or treatment, and my Autism goes away and I get rich my first order of business will be to hire Goldfish to advise me on timing.

Its actually quite normal for a theory to go from apparently on the outskirts and laughed at to accepted wisdom very quickly, because the tipping point is reached and the medical and scientific communities go from ridicule to acceptance seemingly overnight. Its an acknowledged pattern with new information. And scientific progress very much isnt a slow linear process today.

I think something thats being missed here is that the gut-brain stuff ISNT exclusive to autism and, partly because of the resistance of the autistic community, most of the research and knowledge gains have happened in regards to other disabilities and illness. This isnt an anti autism theory and the "debunking" of it by people who feel its a threat to autistic identity is fear based not science based. I understand the fear of being wiped out but improving symptoms that in turn improve an individuals life is not a new idea either, and is again not exclusive to this community but does already happen in autism like with stuff like sensory processing therapys, speech therapys, use of assistive technologies etc, so treating symptoms through medicinal diet isnt really different than taking your autistic child to OT.