Does autism affect the entire body?

Post Reply New Topic

Not just the brain? I think so.

Can you give more of an explanation of what you mean?

A symptom is clumsiness

Well, it first depends on whether the brain also has physiological ramifications. So e.g. if a person walks strangely is it because of dysregulation in dopamine or damaged muscles? Most often it is hard to know for certain, as the brain serves as the coordinator for the entire body.

But other than that, there are theories that autism affects the gastrointestinal system, in which case it may well affect the body itself (unless it's an altered mechanism in the brain that controls that system...)

Two commonly mentioned bodily repercussions of ASD are: low muscle tone (hypotonia), which might cause or contribute to clumsiness; and gastrointestinal problems. The gut has its own mini central nervous system, which uses some of the same neurotransmitters as the brain. If autism causes differences in neurotransmitters in the brain, then that can also affect the functioning of the gastrointestinal nervous system.

Also: autistic people tend to have a larger head, because of the extra brain size (seriously). Autistc brains tend to have more white cells than non-autistic brains.

Yes, especially in the pinky toe.

I don't have a large head. In fact my head is small. But sometimes the head size depends on the body size aswell, unless you mean a large head for the size of the body?

I am not clumsy as in always knocking cups over or anything. I haven't spilt a drink in years. But I am clumsy in other ways, like holding my elbows in an awkward way so that when I turn round my elbows knock things out of other people's hands, etc.

I believe I have low muscle tone in my lower face, because my mouth doesn't close naturally - I have to use muscle all the time when I close my mouth, which makes me pull a funny face (perhaps that's the final explanation why I get people looking and laughing at me in public???) Not sure if this is related to ASD or not, but I was wondering just because other people I know seem to be able to close their mouth more naturally, although I do also know people who look like they have a hard time closing their mouth so it might just be the way I look.

We have horrible immune systems, of course it affects our entire body.

sarcasm? That is a pretty blanket statement, I haven't been sick in months. I have a great immune system

Last edited by Delphiki on 19 May 2012, 7:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

The immune system has nothing to do with your neuology, that really does depend on the person you are and the environment you live in, and also your physical health. I know lots of people who pick up everything that goes around, whilst others don't so much. I have a very strong immune system, I haven't been sick for about 10 years, and the last time I got the common cold was a year ago.

As someone who has had immune system problems, not to mention Inflammatory Bowel Disease ( Crohn's Colitis), I have to say yes.
And at 50 I am still a big klutz!

Sincerely,
Matthew

Yes. Since the brain controls the entire body, the neural underconnectivity that causes autism affects things like gait, posture, motor skills and so on.

My immune is pretty good most of the time. I have horrible seasonal allergies though, and I have developed IBS over the last few years as well.

I have a horrible immune system.

I rarely get sick from infection, but I get sick from inflammation caused by autoimmune attacks.

my immune system is perfect; i dont remember the last time i was more ill then having a runny nose...

and as for the bigger head; this usually 'fixes' itself in early puberty, since brains get more fluids around them by that time, expanding the head; something that happens more strongly in neurotypicals then in autistics, undoing the difference in headsize.

that being said; there are indeed several differences in the body of people with an ASD, there is a study online called: "Morphological Features in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Matched Case–Control Study".
it should still be accessable online

Where did you get that about the gut and GI symptoms in autistics? I mean, I have these symptoms, but the plural of anecdoete isn't data, and I've seen no large-scale studies exploring the link between a utism and GI symptoms that confirmed this.

As for hypotonia, isn't that a neurological symptom? Like, I have slight hypotonia, but I had a brainbleed as an infant (which likely is one of the contributing factors to my autism).

As a side note, yes I did here that genetically speaking tiny physical deviations (such as a bent little finger, facial abnormalities, etc.) are correlated with autism. I forgot the source, sorry.

The high incidence of asthma and allergy among highly gifteds tell another story. What it would be in general for peoples on the spectrum though, I have no idea.


You are a adult now, in the peak of your faculty, of course you rarelly sick! Personally I was frequently sick as a child, far less so as a adult.