Cause of Autism Allegedly Found

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A researcher claims to have found the cause of autism. He believes that it relates to the mitochondria not working properly. Those are like the engines of your cells, giving them energy. He claims that these malfunction and starve the brain, and thus prevent neurons form connecting and firing normally.

Personally I'm skeptical because it contradicts a couple things:
1) He claims this happens when the baby is unborn or shortly after birth but is not genetic. Yet there is strong evidence that autism has genetic component.
2) That sounds like a recipe for mental retardation. How does that allow for HF autistics, aspies, and gifted aspies? It doesn't.

My guess is that research will find this mitochondrial thing is a result of, not a cause of, autism. Perhaps even result of some autisms but not all of them like so many other symptoms.

Link.

Exactly my thoughts after reading the first paragraph, it doesn't explain how parts of the brain are "working" so well, it could only explain a low intelligence, not autism.

What the two of you say makes sense to me.

Mitochondria are also in other kinds of tissue, including muscle. If the mitochondria were faulty, then this would interfere measurably with athletic development.

I don't think there is a single cause for Autism, rather a variety of different causes.

1. Autism is linked to Intersex Syndromes. People who are Intersex are more likely to have ASD. This ties into links with hormone processing and autism. (Including issues with oxytoncin). For example it ASD are practically written into the diagnostic criteria for Klinefelter's Syndrome (XXY). Basically one being autistic does not mean one is more likely to be intersex, but being intersex makes it more likely to be autistic. Intersex syndromes are ultimately issues that effect sexual development, so brain development is ultimately going to be a factor as well. (For the record I do have an Intersex Syndrome.) Hormonal processing messes with a great deal. So autism may be linked. I will be honest, finding the right HRT regiments helped me a great deal. This suggests a clear genetic link.
2. Autism may be linked to environmental factors. Our bodies and brains are not fully developed, and I do think a variety of both chemical and stimulas environmental factors do play a role in how our brain develops. Things can go wrong during that process.

I can go on and on. I think those thinking this has ONE cause are ultimately missing the point. It is figuring out the variety of causes whether they be genetic or environmental. Studying what those causes are is important, but making a claim there is a single cause is offbase. You have to consider a variety of factors.

If this is true (which it doesn't seem to be, thankfully), we're all doomed.

Every couple of months someone comes up with a new "theory" as to the cause of autism. People, especially parents, are desperate enough to believe this stuff so there is an industry to be formed and money to be made on wacky ideas like this. Has anybody read about the "gut-brain theory" (possibly the most disgusting thing I have ever read)? The genetic markers will soon be found and all the rest of this craziness can be laid to rest.

/sigh

Yeah again, another theory of autism that doesn't apply to me or my family history.

Either this is wrong, or this research is zeroing in n something apart from what I have. I suspect by and large this research has focuses on younger subjects. I am completely open to the possibility that what I have, what people in my father's family has had for every generation we can account for, is not the same ting that most of these kids of this "autism epidemic" have. I haven't be exactly comfortable with being told I'm just a "lucky" version of a LFA person. Having worked with LFA kids, I think it's it very possible they have a very different condition from what I have.

Perhaps the autism spectrum is really a nexus of where two or more conditions merge and overlap in a certain number of individuals.

Mitochondrial disorders that mimic autism aren't new.

These, imo, are often the cases of late regression, triggered by environmental toxins, that show the most recovery with wacky treatments, like casein/dairy/gluten-free diets, etc. This is largely what Autism Speaks/ anti-vaccination people are worried about, even though they think they're worried about ASD in general.

The government did concede to vaccines triggering (I will never believe autism or autism-like issues are "caused" by vaccines, but triggered? Sure.) mitochondrial autism in this suit: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kir ... 88323.html

That said, I don't think, based on my zero experience, that mitochondrial autism is the same as ASD.

It seems clear to me that autism is the result of simple mutation. Human life is changing, making intelligence not only more important than physical ability, but absolutely necessary for survival. What good is social cooperation based on instinct, when logic is capable of delivering a better, more consistent outcome? High functioning autism, low functional autism, and Asperger's syndrome all clearly indicate to me that environmental factors are encouraging the abandonment of herd-like cooperation, in favor of more abstract ways of thinking. The results of this genetic drift have been inconsistent so far, hence the considerable variations in intellect and social functionality among people on the spectrum. Nature has yet to find a sustainable equilibrium, wherein parts of the brain normally used for social functions (which are unnecessary and will eventually be bred out) are re-purposed for processing logic and other abstract concepts which are beneficial.
Maybe I'm simply arrogant, but I am confident that the autism spectrum has nothing to do with disorder. It is a natural consequence of evolution; a bump along the way. Our inability to "fit in" with the expectations of a world built to support the needs of logic impaired people will not be relevant when such people no longer exist. It should only take a few thousand years, but everything will sort itself out.
I can wait.

That's odd that it was said to be a Mitochondrial disorder, but not genetic. After all, the mitchondria houses RNA, which happens to be transferred from the mother. (It also has an extraordinarily steady mutation rate, which makes it great for studying population movement...) Mitochondria is in nearly every, if not every cell in the body.
This disorder, as well as the human body, is so incredibly complex....that...well, epigenetics. Autism is genetic, I believe. Epigenetics is what happens to your genes outside of normal cell replication. It is thought that epigenetics accounts for personality differences in identical twins. It can account for a lot of things.

Mitochondrial DNA only comes from your mother and 80% of Aspies are male. If MDNA was the carrier for the Aspergers gene you wouldn't see it trending in the male populations within a family as none of your MDNA comes from your father. I'm sure that it is much more complicated than this - I haven't taken a genetics course since the mid-nineties.

Midlifeaspie, while i agree, the "gut-brain theory" is definetely not a completely invalid theory, if you remember your evolution, it's all about trade-offs between investments, and it is entirely possible we represent an (over)investment in cognitive ability at the cost of other processes, also, brains getting larger and guts getting smaller is a trend that has been happening ever since our ancestors learned they could cook food, basically.

And now these findings that except the bottom 5% of the spectrum (and maybe they are STILL not ret*d but they are so far out of 'normal' range that no current test can measure them), most spectrumites have an average to high general intelligence but with increasing sacrifices of social and language ability as you go down the spectrum (non-verbal auties do quite well on any intelligence test that takes those 2 components out of the equation, and aspies are lucky as they have higher general intelligence with smaller other impairments, a classic case of an evolutionary equilibrium between trade-offs).

And what is one to make of the seemingly non-autistic people who show autistic brain characteristics (Broader Autism Phenotype theory)? i think it's just a culmination of our recent selection for artistic and intellectual and technical abilities showing itself in a wide range of phenotypes, some that are more or less maladaptive. In any case, be careful of any theory that tries to explain autism as "this one defect that explains this range of defects" because new studies are showing that autistics do not generally have impaired intelligence or "underdeveloped brains", just extreme variation.

I'm not sure which theory you are referring to above, it might be one I am not familiar with, but the "gut brain theory" I was referring to was where parents have come to believe that the bacteria in their child's colon is not the right type and this causes autism. So, all the "healthy" family members defecate in a bucket for a week. stir it all up, scoop it into a cake frosting tube and empty it into their child's rectum like an enema, thus "curing" their child of autism.

oh, okay, i thought you meant the theory that in the human lineage, gut size has gone down while brainsize increased, and this seems to be continueing in autistics (i have not seen the actual evidence myself, i just read it as a possible theory once). That theory you mention is the stupidest thing i've ever heard in my life. Why do desperate parents cling on to any crackpot theory out there when there is plenty of REAL science to be found ? if anyone is interested i can post a (scientific) article from now i think 3 years ago that recapsulates the neurobiology research into autism so far.

Bucket = $5.00
Cake Funnel = $3.00
I cured my kid of autism for $8.00.

Plus, certain types of people will believe anything they read on the internet. They don't understand the concept of sourcing your data.