Are Autistics Healthier and Do They Survive Longer?

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It seems like they get over illnesses quicker and a nonverbal autistic boy was found alive in the woods after five days with nothing wrong and I wonder if his autism could have played a role in his survival? What is your opinion?

I don't believe it.

Have any statistics to back this up? It is common for autistics to have multiple comorbid problems.

No, because autism usually comes with a predisposition to autoimmune diseases (google it).

Just because some kid survived in the woods for 5 days (which really isn't that hard if it is summer) does not mean that we have a tendency to survive longer.

Is there any hard Scientific evidence to back this up?

Definately a good question here. I haven't seen any evidence or statistics to support which direction autistic longetivity will go in, but would be interested in finding out. I would suspect that if you put a group of NT's up against a bunch of autistic individuals, and give a certain list of criteria (ie. remove disease and injury from the situations), that autistics and NT's would have roughly the same length of life. But that's just speculation at this point. Definately more research has to be done.

Tilkor

all the people in my family are healthy. my grandparents are all in their 90's except grandpa on dads side who fell off a horse. but he was active up to the last minute.

With all the BS I go through with NTs everytime I have to be near them I should have a longer healthier life out of compinasation for the aggravation.

yea I read about this as well. i don't know if it plays a role in longevity. I would think not, but I may be wrong

Given the relatively short length of time autism has been studied and the inability to identify a significant percentage of those who are autistic(especially those who grew up before evaluation was common), it seems like it would be difficult to say whether autism has any correlation with changes in lifespan.

The disparity between recent diagnosis rates and the diagnosis rates in the past indicates that either there has been an increase in the number of autistic people being born or that a large percentage of the people who could be classified as autistic were born before assessment was available to them. Also, it seems that autism wasn't really studied as a separate thing until the 1930s and 1940s(by Kanner and Asperger, respectively), and many people born before that time are still alive today, so even if a certain percentage of autistic people tend to have shorter lifespans it would be difficult to determine whether any significant percentage of autistic people had a lifespan that was longer than average.

It's difficult to say, I am quite healthy and am hardly ever ill. I'm quite physically fit and although I'm 28 most people think I look about 23. Aspies obviously have different lifestyles to NT's and it would be interesting to know whether this affects them for better or worse.

Maybe it was his poor sense of danger that saved him? Still eventually the boy would have starved.

I think there are many things that can shorten an autistics life: poor eating habits, being on medication from co-morbid disorders, anxiety etc.

My theory about getting over illnesses quickly especially in HF is that they can feel when they're about to get ill. When I feel any slight symptom of illness I work hard to stop myself from getting worse. Of course the lack of awareness for more severe types completely crushes this theory.

I used to have horrible eating habits and hygiene and I didn't get ill less times than any other kids. Maybe I built up immunity? Now I'm healthy, fit and very aware of the processes in my body. But if I got lost for an hour I'd have a gazillion meltdowns. Eventually, I would get into survival mode which is usually gettingthahell away from the place that caused me such distress.

A few weeks ago a thread came up asking the complete opposite to this question. So I don't believe anything. We have all got just as much chance of living longer or shorter than anyone else. You've got just as much chance as waking up with Meningitis tomorrow as an NT has got. You have got just as much chance of breaking your leg tomorrow as an NT has got. I am not going to think that Autism is the cause for everything I think, say, do and feel. I've got a headache right now, but it's not because I've got Autism. Probably hormones, stress, temperature, or just a random headache. I haven't got tummyache now, but I'm not going to say, ''oh I don't get tummyache much because I have Autism''.

I think this is one of those cases where there are studies with subjective evidence, which can be bent to go either way in the debate. I strongly doubt if there is any medical or scientific reason why autism actually is related to, or causes or is caused by, and other medical issues. My only (God willing, that I know of), life-threatening medical problem is a bicuspid aortic valve (born with a heart defect). It can be fixed, but it has caused my heart to get toward being worn out too early. Others I have read about with this problem, are not on the Spectrum. As far as autoimmune issues, I have no idea, but I know plenty of Autistics who aren't with any such problem.

Charles

According to this, no:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21905805

Chronic disease risks in young adults with autism spectrum disorder: forewarned is forearmed.
Tyler CV, Schramm SC, Karafa M, Tang AS, Jain AK.
Source

Case Western Reserve University, OH, USA. [email protected]
Abstract

An emerging, cost-effective method to examine prevalent and future health risks of persons with disabilities is electronic health record (EHR) analysis. As an example, a case-control EHR analysis of adults with autism spectrum disorder receiving primary care through the Cleveland Clinic from 2005 to 2008 identified 108 adults with autism spectrum disorder. In this cohort, rates of chronic disease included 34.9% for obesity, 31.5% for hyperlipidemia, and 19.4% for hypertension. Compared with a control cohort of patients from the same health system matched for age, sex, race, and health insurance status, adults with autism spectrum disorder were more likely to be diagnosed with hyperlipidemia (odds ratio  =  2.0, confidence interval  =  1.2-3.4, p  =  .012). Without intervention, adults with autism spectrum disorder appear to be at significant risk for developing diabetes, coronary heart disease, and cancer by midlife.

To be truely honest with you, most people slowly kill themselves with their beliefs about getting old, having a cold, having cancer, having (fill in the blank). Did you know most cancer patients (or any patient for that matter) will all of a sudden get much sicker the moment they hear the diagnosis?? It has been proven time and time and time again that what a person believes about a situation is very likely what comes to eventuate in the situation. I even read a story of how one man showed all physical evidence of being shot in the heart (i.e. his heart exploded) when his friend held up a gun to him and pretended to shoot. The man fell down instantly dead and the autopsy revealed he had been shot.... the gun didn't have any bullets in it!

A lot of illness in our society is psychosomatic! Since most aspys/autistics are oblivious to social norms they wont lock their thoughts into the negatives that most believe about whatever situation, so hence may not bring about the same results. Our bodies will very often do what our brains tell them they should (i.e. you should now start to deteriorate because you have cancer)

I gotta say that as an Aspy I have an insane immune system! Seriously I pretty much NEVER get sick! Now I cannot equivically say this is because I'm Aspy, I'm just saying that's how it is.

I don't think about these things as most people do so I don't see how it applies.

I have a cold. Or I don't have a cold. This is just a data point. I don't think that God has cursed me or invoke karmic payback. It's just a cold.