Parkinson's research: gut-brain link (just like ASD)

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I came across this article on Parkinson's Disease research, and how scientists believe it could originate in the gut - sound familiar?? The parallels between this and ASD are uncanny: they mention the vagus nerve, the condition ostensibly has motor skill deficits, and obviously a presentation of awkwardness...and it's true that people with ASD generally have more digestive discomfort issues, on the average, compared to NTs - based on what I've read.

One could extrapolate the parallels further based on the tendency of more elderly people who have Parkinson's to have a decline in emotional intelligence (or social intuition) and hence be more of the stereotypical target of scammers... just like we have been preyed upon by others taking advantage of our naivete, and desperation for social contact. One time at 19, I recall some girl telling me that it seemed like I was prematurely senile.

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I do not see a strong correlation. Many diseases, particularly neurological ones, present with gastroenterological disorders. You note that both Parkinson's and ASD include symptoms of poor motor function, emotional intelligence, and awkwardness, but you have missed the fact that these occur for different reasons. I'm unclear on the ties you're making surrounding the vagus nerve. Can you elaborate?

You'd have to look at the article, I'm not an expert in the field.

I read the article, it does not suggest a correlation between ASD and Parkinson's. In your original post you asserted there were parallels. It's important that we do not spead misinformation or mislead members/visitors about ASD.

I never expressly said that *the article said* there was a connection between ASD and Parkinsons...my statement opened with:
"The parallels between this and ASD are uncanny:..."
That doesn't give cause to infer that the article said that...it's my own thoughts and insights

While a gut-brain link may play a role, I don't think it has anything to do with emotional intelligence because I used to have very low emotional intelligence and now I'm above average and able to help other people with their emotions. All I had to do was address the root cause of my emotions to stop them from lowering my emotional intelligence.

I learned that emotions affect the way your brain functions. As long as you have unaddressed emotions, your brain function will be continually impaired. Treating the root causes of those emotions can make them go away and allow you to think clearly which is all I needed to go from below average to above average emotional intelligence.

Good for you! It is very good to hear about how some of us took positives measures to improve that had positive results in the end.
Of course, "treating the root cause" is largely a matter of perspective; as for many of us, a lot of those negative emotions were due to how certain sh**ty people had treated us in the past. So it comes down to attitude - we can just sever the ties with them, but they're insignificant or non-existent after that as far as we ought to be concerned

Severing ties isn't enough. Those emotions can still affect you. If you felt worse after being criticized many times or being treated poorly because you acted differently, your mind probably associated criticism and odd behavior with the emotions you felt. That can result in conditioned emotional responses that make you sensitive to criticism and afraid to say or do anything that people might think is weird. Gradually seeking out criticism and being myself while not stressed and thinking positively helped me break those associations so that I can be myself and not feel worse when people react negatively. That's what helped me the most and made a big difference in my life.

I think I understand what the OP is trying to say

In 2015 there was a major study conducted in Canada and the Imperial College London on the high prevalence of autism in the Somali diaspora community. Autism is barely observed in their home communities back in Somalia but the immigrant Somalis have one of the highest rates of autism in the world.

One of the theories put forward by the team in London/Canada is diet changes from traditional fermented foods in Somalia to refined diets high in dairy/wheat plus antibiotics has an impact of the children's gut flora.

Antibiotics, especially repeated doses at a young age, can wipe out the diversity of bacteria living in the gut, rendering children vulnerable to attack by hostile or pathogenic bacteria, which can in turn affect synoptic development in the brain. Microbiologists are fond of saying that we are only 10 percent human. “for every human cell that is intrinsic to our body, there are about 10 resident microbes … To the extent that we are bearers of genetic information, more than 99 percent of it is microbial. And it appears increasingly likely that this ‘second genome,’ as it is sometimes called, exerts an influence on our health as great [as] and possibly even greater than the genes we inherit from our parents. But while your inherited genes are more or less fixed, it may be possible to reshape, even cultivate, your second genome”

Secondly traditional diets high in fermented foods protect Somali children's gut flora if they are sick at home. So the combination of antibiotics and crap western diets is making Somali more susceptible to autism (or so the theory goes)
http://www.asatheory.org/current-newsle ... i-refugees