Allergies and Aspergers. Is there a link?

Post Reply New Topic

I have a thirteen year old son with A.S. He is alergic to antibiotics, some foods and dust mites and is currently being tested in the Childrens hospital. I have a friend who has a ten year old son also with A.S. and has alergic reactions to some antibiotics. I was wondering if it is common to have alergies.

I'm not sure if there is concrete evidence of a link to allergiees and Asperger's Syndrome. However, the two times I took ibuprofen, I broke out in hives.

thanks for the info. My son also gets hives, starting from a red raised rash like a burn and turning his whole skin red like sunburn. He has reactions to amoxil, ceclor, euromythsyn, bactrim etc. Duo washing powder also gives him hives.

You're welcome for the info. Sorry I couldn't help you with more. We'll see if anyone else has more useful information on this issue.

Diane M Kennedy and Temple Grandin make a point in their book "The ADHD-Autsim Connection" that throughout the autism spectrum (including AD(H)D), allergies seem to be a common phenomena.

I actually suffer from very few allergies and I don't think I have every broken out in hives. I am allergic to bee stings, but that is only since I disturbed a nest of bumblebees while mowing the lawn when I was twelve. I am not completely sure, but I am almost positive that I am allergic to bananas. I hate the smell of bananas and my mother says that I refused to eat them when I was very young. My older sister, who is NT, suffers from many more allergies than I do; I can easily remember waiting in the allergy clinic while she received her shots. I know my mom is allergic to sulfa drugs.

There may be a link (I have hay fever and asthma, for example) but we may also have better immune systems; I rarely get flu for instance, and it's always over in a few days, and nowhere near as severe as some seem to get it.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback, my son also has a better immune system than other kids we know and a high tolerance of pain which is great as he can't have antibiotics.

Hello,

I like to ad an idea of a friend of mine here, that could give rise for a much more fundamental connection between autism spectrum and allergies.

As Diane M Kennedy points out, ADHD, Asperger and Autism all have differences in regulation of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain. However, not much is know about the effect of serotonin in the digestive esystem. Serotonin belongs to the group of neurotransmitters:

Biogenic Amine Neurotransmitters are: Histamine, Serotonin and the Catecholamines (Dopamine, Epinephrine and
Norepinephrine).

It struck me that Histamine is a neurotransmitter. I only knew anti-Histamines which is sold as anti-allergy mediaction. So histamines paly a significant role in the digestiv esystem. But what does Histamine in the brain? And what does Serotonin do in the digestive system?

Is there a Serotonin-Histamine connection that is not yet researched, that imakes a significant connection between autism and allergies??

I would really like to se some research done on this. Please feel free to quote this post wherever you see people interessted in that topic.

I like the way you think; as yet I have no answers to propose...but maybe someday?

I am allergic to cats. When I inhale their dander it's as if I come down with a cold. It's too bad also, since I like animals. I can relate to the strong immune system, for instance I've never had the flu in my entire life, nor a flu shot. The last time I was sick enough to visit a doctor was when I was 11 (I'm almost 26 now). The last time I went to the dentist, they couldn't figure out why my teeth were all perfect and disease free. That was a horrible experience, the dentists in that office all gathered around the chair looking in my mouth, poking and proding and interrigating me about what I ate and drank. I felt like one of those people who had been kidnapped by aliens and experimented on. Especially since the light they were using to look in my mouth was like some sort of artificial sun designed to burn my eyes out.

As far as the link between the autistic spectrum and seratonin regulation by the brain goes, I had gone on a lutein free diet several months back (I had read that lutein was a seratonin supressant, and that autistic physiology didn't break lutein down like NT's, thus the level of lutein in the autistic brain is greatly increased and the level of seratonin decreased, leading to a less emotion filled brain.) All I can say about the diet is I'm happier not being on it. The theory of food allergy seems sound, if our bodies don't break down lutein like everybody else and this leads to a decrease in seratonin (which I read also regulates mood) then our brains would be more freed up to process information instead of feel emotion. Socialising, from what I gather, seems to be an emotional need. If the need is not as great in us, then we don't socialise, and instead spend more time filling our head with information and developing our brains to be like computers. Ofcourse, I could also be rambling and be wrong. I do feel the need to socialise and be around other people, unfortunatley when I do I always feel like I'm trapped in a cage and surrounded by dangerous animals.