I'm Curing my Aspergers Disease

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So, where's your proof?

I totally agree with you!! ! Eloquently put.

BTW I am on a GFCF low-phenol diet, and it has done wonders for me.

I haven't read more than a couple posts on this thread. First to the OP---I don't want a cure---but that's my opinion.

As for the mentioning of disease versus disorder---I choose "difference."

There is discussion about the wiring of the brain. The way the autistic brain is wired is different than the NT brain. This is why I see autism as a difference. We don't normally say the wiring is diseased wiring, we say the brain is wired differently.

I see a disease as something that degrades a person. I don't see autism this way. Autism is a difference that can bring about amazing talents and abilities

Well...that's my opinion.

I've done the gluten free thing before. Personally it didn't help me, but good luck to you.

And yeah, even if stuff is "organic" that doesn't make it gluten/casein free. My little brother has celiac disease and eats gluten free all the time, and I can tell you it's a pain...you don't realize how often there is gluten in things like seasoning on stuff that is gluten free.

OP hasnt visited since nov 14, approx 3 weeks after starting his diet. i wonder if he starved to death

Of course not. He probably has something going on and just isn't interested in what we have to say. Maybe he's busy with a new job or something. Maybe it was phenomenally successful and he doesn't want to rub it in but thinks nothing we have to say is worth hearing now. Maybe it was unsuccessful and he doesn't want to face people asking him how it worked out. Maybe he's just not interested in forums. Maybe he doesn't have an internet connection. Maybe he has a new special interest that's taking up all his time.

I doubt those diets actually work, if anyone feels a difference in their behaviour most likely are feeling the effects of the placebo.
While the brain is very plastic and can change over time, I don't think not drinking milk is going to make much difference.

Smoke Pot. Your brain will shrink by 10% to the size of the brain of an NT, and you will be completely NT.

I thought our brains were only 5% bigger, and anyway, a brain-damaged Aspie isn't NT any more than a lizard with its legs cut off is a snake.

Going GFCF would probably help if you, say, actually had an allergy to gluten and casein. The OP probably doesn't, but there's no certainty re: strangers on the internet.

"Although the basic architecture of the CNS is established during embryonic development, it can change after birth. This capacity for the nervous system to be remodeled, especially in response to its own activity, is called neural plasticity. Much of the reshaping of the nervous system occurs at synapses. When activity at a synapse correlates with that of other synapses, change may occur that reinforce that synaptic connection....The net effect is to increase signaling between particular pairs of neurons and decrease signaling at other sites....Remodeling and refining of the nervous system occurs in many contexts....Learning skills and procedures...appears to involve cellular mechanisms very similar to those responsible for brain growth and development. In such cases, neurons actually make new connections."

Cliffs Notes version: Practice makes perfect. Repeating and practicing the proper way to do things like interact with others or look people in the eye will help those things come more naturally, even if they never become 100% intuitive.

Proof on the diet's influence on brain function [this is paraphrased because it was in the text in table form]:

Deficiency of Thiamine can lead to nerve disorders
Deficiency of Niacin can lead to nervous disorders
Deficiency of Vitamin B6 can lead to irritability
Deficiency of Pantothenic Acid (B5) can lead to fatigue
Deficiency of B12 can lead to nervous system disorders
Deficiency of Vitamin E can lead to degeneration of the nervous system
Deficiency of Magnesium can lead to nervous system disturbances

Works Cited
Losos, Jonathan B., Kenneth A. Mason, Susan R. Singer, Peter H. Raven, and George B. Johnson. "Chapter Forty-One Animal Nutrition & Chapter Forty-Nine Nervous Systems." Biology. 8th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2008. 877+. Print.

This was my Intro to Bio class textbook, so these concepts are fairly commonly known.

"Your brain must manufacture the right proteins and fats to do things such as grow new connections or add myelin, the fatty sheath to axons. You do this by digesting proteins and fats in food and using the pieces, that is, the amino acids and fatty acids, to make the new brain proteins and fats."

This is a quote from a very simple website made by Dr. Chudler of University of Washington:

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/nutr.html

While the website is simplified for children, the facts are there.

The diet is therapeutic, and nothing else. It doesn't 'cure' anything; it only makes symptoms easier to manage, assuming it does anything at all, and assuming that the patient/subject would be known to benefit from it in the first place.

I agree with this.

Point of clarification: My use of the phrase "the diet" in my post was not in reference to the OP's diet, but to the human diet in general, and how what one eats can influence one's brain function.

Like I said in my first post, the diet can influence brain function to the point where modification of diet could possibly improve brain function. I never claimed to be 100% in support of the OP's diet.

I agree with Zokk. AS is only 'cured' as long as you are on the diet so it is not really cured. That is like saying I'm cured by my fatigue for eating healthy but if I stray from that diet I will become fatigued again. By the way my symptoms are just inattentive ADHD.

Also that amount of vitamins listed on the first page taken in a supplement form could kill a person, so can completely going off sugar. Going off sugar can result in weakness/fainting and for those on the Atkins diet: diabetes. OK maybe not kill you but it's bad for you. Take it from a person with hypoglycemia. Even sugar and fat can be a good thing in moderation.

Also, I've said this time and time again. You rewire your brain everyday. From everything you learn and experience. You can even rewire it in a bad way which leads to things like anxiety and depression. I actually feel like I've lived two lives; one as a very ignorant child and young adult to a somewhat knowledgeable of most things and incredibly knowledgeably and a select few things. Basically I've probably raised my own IQ 20 or 30 points. Doesn't seem like much but to me it's enough. But this has been over 10 years so neuroplasticity doesn't happen over night.

Actually neuroplasticity doesn't "happen" ever, because it isn't an event or action, it is the capacity of a nervous system to change with experience. One's nervous system has this capacity at all times. And modifying one's neural pathways can happen quite quickly depending on the complexity. For example, most people cross their arms the same way (either right over left or left over right) every time. However, if one consciously makes an effort to cross one's arms the opposite way, it can become habitual within a few weeks. This was a thought experiment that one of my elementary school teachers put forth to myself and my classmates. At the time it was oversimplified to simply be a lesson about developing habits, but it really has everything to do with the brain/nervous system.

I do agree with your other points though. Obviously a diet modification cannot cure anything if everything reverts back if one goes off the diet. And while I listed only the ramifications of vitamin and mineral deficiencies in my other post, the textbook does also list the ramifications of excess of the same nutrients. I merely excluded them for the sake of brevity. Also I liked your point about rewiring leading to anxiety. That's something I'm currently working on overcoming, and it's definitely not easy, but I'm convinced that it's doable.

I don't think it's the same. I think it's legitimate to say something is cured if it goes away by eating a standard healthy diet and only comes back if you don't eat healthy.

It's not, though, legitimate to say something is cured if one gets rid of it by a special diet and it comes back if one eats a standard healthy diet without the special provisions. It's a treatment, not a cure, in that case.

Thank you Dilbert and adifferentname. I thought the same thing, but you have to remember there are some outlandish viewpoints out there.