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While many people are aware of the behavioural symptoms associated with autism, probably not so many realize that autistics often also have gastrointestinal problems. With that in mind, scientists at the University of Arizona recently conducted a study in which a group of 18 autistic children received fecal transplants from donors with healthy gastrointestinal systems. Not only did the procedure help to "rebalance" their gut flora, but it also improved their behaviour.
First of all, a fecal transplant is just what it sounds like. Feces from one person are screened for disease-causing organisms, and then introduced into the recipient's digestive tract. In this case, the recipients first took antibiotics for two weeks, to wipe out their existing gut flora. They then received the fecal transplant initially in a high-dose liquid form, after which it was delivered in a lower-dose powder mixed into smoothies.
Of all the possible ways I could imagine to treat autism, that was not one of them...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 26 2017, @08:29AM
You guys probably have undiagnosed Celiac Disease. Only about 1/3 of people in the USA with Celiac disease are diagnnosed, and about 1% of people of European ancestry have it, so that is a lot of people. For those with Celiac, giving up gluten can have the effects you described, and more. Giving up gluten is life changing for them. But for everyone else, giving up gluten does nothing.
My son has Celiac Disease. The rest of the family doesn't (we've all been tested). Giving up gluten was life changing for him. Hasn't changed anything for the rest of us.