Diet Changes May Ease Autism Symptoms: Study

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June 14, 2001 Search www.feat.org/search/news.asp

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Diet Changes May Ease Autism Symptoms: Study

[by Griffiths.]

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010613/hl/autism_1.html

Reuters Health - A small study conducted by US-based researchers is

providing preliminary scientific support to the idea that changes in diet

can improve symptoms in some people with autism.

Autism is a neurological disorder that impairs thinking, feeling and social

functioning. It typically appears during the first 3 years of life and can

range in severity and symptoms, from mild to devastatingly severe

impairment.

Heredity is thought to play a major role in the disease. Dr. Ted

Kniker has been investigating the theory that poorly degraded food proteins

leak from the gut into the blood, having a drug-like effect that changes

brain activity.

In the first part of his study, reported by Reuters Health in early

May, Kniker, of the San Autistic Treatment Center in Texas, found

that 5 out of 28 children and adults with autism showed improvements in

their symptoms after elimination of dairy products and wheat glutens from

their diets.

In the second part of the study, the researchers eliminated several

other foods, including buckwheat, soy products, tomato, pork and grapes from

the patients' diets. " The improvements were really exciting, " according to

Kniker, who collaborated in this study with colleagues at the Autistic

Treatment Centers of Texas.

" Symptoms changed dramatically in 39.3% of patients during the second

phase of the 3-month intervention period, " he said. Eight out of 28 patients

showed clear improvements, as measured by a variety of quantitative scoring

methods, including the Autistic Treatment Evaluation Checklist.

" Only three patients deteriorated, but we hope that these individuals

will improve in time. In the first part of the study, five patients

deteriorated, but two of these returned to their baseline levels in the last

month of the study, so it could be that the others who deteriorated are

still eating potentially allergenic foods, " he said.

Kniker argues that autism is not usually a defect in brain

development, but is more likely to be a brain dysfunction that is secondary

to extraneous factors, such as dietary factors, immune dysfunctions,

infections or toxins.

" In future studies, we will improve our strategy by identifying all

potentially troublesome foods by blood tests, dietary elimination and

challenge procedures, rather than imposing an arbitrary diet, " Kniker

stated.

Commenting on the study, autism expert Professor Hall from the

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine agreed that " further

carefully conducted randomized trials of this dietary approach to treatment

are worthwhile. "

But he noted that " whether or not treatment is effective does not

necessarily imply that an abnormal response to food is part of the cause of

autism. Any abnormal response to food could be a result of autism. "

Kniker cautioned that standard behaviour management, psychological and

educational approaches to the treatment of autism will still be necessary,

because improvements in cognition and mood can lead to new stresses and

demands on patients.

" As we noted in the previous study, some individuals who showed

improvements in brain function showed deterioration in behaviour, as they

found it hard to deal with these dramatic changes, " he said.

Kniker will present his findings at a meeting in Sicily at the end of

June.

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