Children with autism and gastrointestinal symptoms have altered digestive genes

[Celebration]

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-children-autism-gastrointestinal-symptoms-digestive.html

Researchers at the Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and at the Harvard Medical School report that children with autism and gastrointestinal disturbances have altered expression of genes involved in digestion. These variations may contribute to changes in the types of bacteria in their intestines.

..............snip

Autism, which is defined by impairments in verbal and non-verbal communication, social interactions, and repetitive and stereotyped behaviors, affects approximately 1% of the population. Many children with autism have gastrointestinal problems that can complicate clinical management and contribute to behavioral disturbances. In some children, special diets and antibiotics have been associated with improvements in social, cognitive and gastrointestinal function.

The investigators found that children diagnosed with autism and gastrointestinal disturbances have abnormalities in levels of genes for enzymes that break down sugars and for molecules that transport them from the lumen of the intestine into the blood. These variations were also associated with changes in the bacterial composition of the intestine.

[proverbialwisdom]

1. K&R.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/video/18567384/index.html

POSTED: 4:10 pm EDT January 26, 2009

Martha Herbert MD PhD, "It frustrates me that we are not focusing a massive quantity of energy like a Manhattan Project type of energy on what is going on in an entire generation." Herbert, a child neurologist at Mass General Hospital, says nothing in her training prepared her for the number of kids coming in with autism, ADD, ADHD and other developmental disorders..." (part 1, minute 54)

Excerpt from ABC's Chronicle: Toxic Kids (4 parts)
What is making American children sick? Cancer rates are climbing. Cases of autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and asthma are through the roof. Is the answer all around us " in the food our kids eat, the air they breathe, and the clothes they wear?" Tonight, Chronicle investigates a provocative thesis about the American lifestyle and its effects on children's health.

http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2009/07/maine-cdc-autism-conference-genes-and.html

VIDEO: Maine CDC Autism Conference: Genes and Environment, Developmental and Chronic: An Inclusive Approach to Autism Science

Martha Herbert, MD, PhD
Pediatric Neurologist
Massachusetts General Hospital
Harvard Medical School

http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2009/05/sun-rises-first-in-maine-or-maine-way.html

May 14, 2009

The Sun Rises First in Maine Or Maine, The Way Life Should Be

On Tuesday, May 12th in Augusta Maine, the Maine Center for Disease Control & Prevention, Department of Health & Human Services, the American Academy of Pediatrics - Maine Chapter, the Maine Medical Association, the Maine Osteopathic Association, the Maine Emergency Medical Services, the Autism Society of Maine, the Downeast Association of Physician Assistants, national figures in autism research, causation and treatment, state developmental pediatricians, state DAN physicians, biomed parents, non biomed parents, and autism treatment and therapy providers of all kinds met to do something that has never been done before in this country.

Listen to one another...

Full video available, excerpt above.

[SheilaT]

2. Well, for what it's worth,

I have a son with autism (Asperger's Syndrome)and no gastrointestinal problems of any kind.

He also happens to have alopecia areata, an auto-immune disorder that causes hair loss, and I had quite a heated conversation several years back with another mother of a child with alopecia areata who was totally convinced all cases of alopecia were caused by leaky gut syndrome, which her child apparently had.

Sometimes two things go together. Sometimes they don't.

[proverbialwisdom]

3. Hi. It's worth a lot, both children have an auto-immune disorder.

Watch the last 5 minutes of Herbert's talk (above) starting with the slide (I think the word 'women' should be changed to 'humanitarians'):

Will Women Lead The Environmental Health Movement?

How can we imagine that ordinary people might be able successfully to challenge the overwhelming internal logic of the global economic system because of concern over environmental health?

There is an Ethiopian proverb that when spider webs unite they can tie up a lion. The lion of the globally destructive patterns of production and consumption may one day be ensnared and ultimately domesticated by the gossamer webs of human consciousness and community action. What will happen when ordinary people, whose lives are often mortally wounded by the destruction of the biosphere, come to understand that their own wounds are so often intimately related to the wounds of the earth.

What will happen when a working woman comes to a realization that her own breast cancer, her husband's lymphoma, her brother's melanoma, her son's learning disability, his best friend's attention deficit disorder, her daughter's endometriosis, her niece's cleft palate, her cousin's chronic anxiety and panic disorder, her best friend's severe chemical sensitivity, her best friend's daughter's asthma, her uncle's infertility, her neighbor's son's testicular cancer, and her sister's daughter's childhood leukemia may form a pattern?

...continues without slide.

Argh, it accidentally x-ed out. You'll just have to do it. Then you'll certainly want to play the rest while you're multi-tasking. Then you'll certainly want to watch it all very carefully. I would bet on it.

[mzmolly]

5. Exactly.

:hi:

[HuckleB]

4. Spot on, Sheila.

:hi:

[Celebration]

6. Sounds like they were testing a subset of kids with autism

Your child would not fit into that subset, since there aren't gastrointestinal issues.

Anyway, I think that is why it is a "spectrum"--not only is there a spectrum of symptoms, there is most likely a spectrum of causes.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

7. This may dovetail with your article.....

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/03/990316103010.htm

University of Florida Researchers Cite Possible Link Between Autism, Schizophrenia And Diet

GAINESVILLE, Fla.---Findings from two novel animal studies indicate autism and schizophrenia may be linked to an individual’s inability to properly break down a protein found in milk, University of Florida researchers report in this month’s issue of the journal Autism.

The digestive problem might actually lead to the disorders’ symptoms, whose basis has long been debated, said UF physiologist Dr. J. Robert Cade, cautioning that further research must take place before scientists have a definitive answer. When not broken down, the milk protein produces exorphins, morphine-like compounds that are then taken up by areas of the brain known to be involved in autism and schizophrenia, where they cause cells to dysfunction.

[trotsky]

8. So it's not vaccines after all? n/t