Autism: It’s Not Just in the Head

[Guest guest]

Autism: It’s Not Just in the Head

The devastating derangements of autism also show up in the gut and in

the

immune system. That unexpected discovery is sparking new treatments

that

target the body in addition to the brain.

by Jill Neimark

....

In one way, the field seems like a free-for-all, staggeringly

disordered

because it is littered with so many possibilities. But one can distill

a few

revolutionary insights. First, autism may not be rigidly determined but

instead may be related to common gene variants, called polymorphisms,

that

may be derailed by environmental triggers. Second, affected genes may

disturb fundamental pathways in the body and lead to chronic

inflammation

across the brain, immune system, and digestive system. Third,

inflammation

is treatable.

“I can’t think of it as a coincidence anymore that so many autistic

kids

have a history of allergies, eczema, or chronic diarrhea.”

“In spite of so many years of assumptions that a brain disorder like

this is

not treatable, we’re helping kids get better. So it can’t just be

genetic,

prenatal, hardwired, and hopeless,” says Harvard pediatric neurologist

Martha Herbert, author of a 14,000-word paper in the journal Clinical

Neuropsychiatry that reconceptualizes the universe of autism, pulling

the

brain down from its privileged perch as an organ isolated from the

rest of

the body. Herbert is well suited to this task, a synthetic thinker who

wrote

her dissertation on the developmental psychologist Jean Piaget and who

then

went to medical school late, in her early thirties.

“I no longer see autism as a disorder of the brain but as a disorder

that

affects the brain,” Herbert says. “It also affects the immune system

and the

gut. One very striking piece of evidence many of us have noticed is

that

when autistic children go in for certain diagnostic tests and are told

not

to eat or drink anything ahead of time, parents often report their

child’s

symptoms improve—until they start eating again after the procedure. If

symptoms can improve in such a short time frame simply by avoiding

exposure

to foods, then we’re looking at some kind of chemically driven

‘software’—perhaps immune system signals—that can change fast. This

means

that at least some of autism probably comes from a kind of metabolic

encephalopathy—a systemwide process that affects the brain, just like

cirrhosis of the liver affects the brain.”

http://discovermagazine.com/2007/apr/autism-it2019s-not-just-in-the-head

Carol F.

Celiac, MCS, Latex Allergy, EMS

SCD 7 years