What causes autism?

[mamakay]

What's your theory?
And what part, if any, does the MMR play?

(I couldn't resist being the starter of an impending spinoff thread)

[heldt123]

:

[LongIsland]

Without going into crazy detail, I believe the majority of autism cases were caused by mercury's inabiliy to be excreted from the body.

MMR's role: The mercury being the catalyst for the measles virus to enter the gut.

[mamakay]

Originally Posted by LongIsland

Without going into crazy detail, I believe the majority of autism cases were caused by mercury's inabiliy to be excreted from the body.

MMR's role: The mercury being the catalyst for the measles virus to enter the gut.

So how do you think the virus in the gut affects the brain to cause autism?

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Hokaaayyyyy........ says she dipping her foot in the water.

Not going to give my opinion to you on a plate.

Gonna ask questions first.

This is called laying a foundation upon which to build.

1) How much do you know about Gut Flora?

2) What do you know about the GALT and BALT systems and how they relate to the whole?

3) How much you you understand about the impact of minerals on the immune system pre-pregnancy and in utero?

4) How does the gut change during pregnancy, and why?

5) Leaving aside mercury what do you know about the impact ofthings like these http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3723934.stm on an adult, let alone a child?

6) What impact does hormone mimicking chemicals, including the pill have on the minerals in the body, and therefore the immune system, and how might that impact on a child in utero?

[LongIsland]

Originally Posted by mamakay

So how do you think the virus in the gut affects the brain to cause autism?

I'm cutting and pasting the opiad theory of autism info. from a few different sites, so it may not "flow," but you'll get the point:

On February 28, 1998, Wakefield reported in The Lancet a possible connection among inflammatory bowel disease, autism, and viral infection associated with measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccination. The damage from autism is thought to be provoked by an allergic reaction initiated by the body's reaction to the vaccine. This auto-immune response may also reduce levels of the dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP)-IV enzyme, thereby connecting vaccines to the opioid theory of autism.

. . . the opioid excess theory for the causation of autism. In brief, we suspect that peptides with opioid (morphine-like) activity, resulting from the incomplete digestion of certain foods, in particular gluten from wheat and certain other cereals and from casein from milk and dairy produce, find their way into the bloodstream from the lumen of the intestine. Once in the bloodstream a proportion will cross into the brain.

They will either act directly as neuroregulators by mimicking the bodies own natural opioids (such as the enkephalins or endorphins) or act as ligands to the enzymes which would break down these naturally occurring compounds. In either case, the consequence is an increase in opioid activity.

Protein is made of peptides, which are made of amino acids. Basically, his lab and several others have published many articles in the scientific literature on their findings of unusual proteins and peptides in the urine of people with autism.

Those proteins and peptides come from casein (dairy) and gluten (wheat and related grains), and they have an opioid-like effect on the brain, with a potency several times that of morphine.

The peptides enter the blood due to 2 major biological flaws:

1) a failure of the digestive track to fully digest/break-down the casein and gluten molecules into amino acids, and

2) a “leaky gut” which allows the undigested proteins/peptides to pass into the blood stream. The failure of the gut to properly digest the proteins is apparently due to a lack of peptidases (digestive enzymes). These opioid peptides can have many behavioral and physical effects, and could cause many of the symptoms of autism.

************************

Our immunologist (DAN doc) had my son's peptides tested at the age of three:

Casomorphin (milk)
My son's level: 53.5
Normal range: <2.5 ng/ml

Gliadorphin (wheat)
My son's level: 23.6
Normal range: <20 ng/ml

Many of you have probably heard of the GF/CF diet, which is part of DAN protocol. Within days of going on the diet (along with supplementation), my son began talking and socializing. My son was literally addicted to dairy - we always wondered why his pupils were always dialated and his eyes constantly glassy. The red cheeks, the persistent ear infections, the constipation, the vomitting, the constant runny nose. He was physically ill - not mentally ill. His vitamins/minerals were also a mess. He had the high copper/low zinc ratios, which is also a common denominator of autistic children.

It was a very very long road, but today he no longer fits the criteria for autism.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Now go back, Long Island and look at what you have put there and consider it in the context of my questions.

Relate those questions to you, and to your son. I don't know the history of your son, so I don't know which part of the whole puzzle he fits into.

I would think other minerals would have been a mess, and suspect he would have some major amino acid problems too. And gut flora issues... to mention a few.

I don't consider him physically ill. He is biochemically and immunologically dysfunctional.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

See the opiad theory has a major flaw. It isn't the chicken. It's the egg which is why autism was so rare in the past. The chicken to lay the egg was pretty rare. The theory talks about this as a cause. It's not, its the consequence.

I relate this in another way. The vaccine, for your son was a bullet loaded into a gun. But there had to be a gun first.

While I'd like to see no bullets ever, what I'd really like to see is people get rid of the gun, or at least, understand what the gun is, and what pulls the trigger. And how it is that modern day life is what has built that gun piece by piece, to lay the foundation for not just MMR, but ALL vaccines to cause autism.

Many of the cases I've done, Long Island, never got as far as the MMR...

[LongIsland]

Originally Posted by Momtezuma Tuatara

I don't consider him physically ill. He is biochemically and immunologically dysfunctional.

Yes!!! His immune system was completely messed up . . . . . . which made him physically ill.

I don't believe autism is a mental disorder. I believe it's an immune system disorder as do most parents who believe in the vaccine/autism theory.

[mamakay]

Originally Posted by Momtezuma Tuatara

See the opiad theory has a flaw. It isn't the chicken. It's the egg.

That's exactly what I was thinking, too.
Being epileptic, I know quite a bit about opioid peptides. They are what shut down ugly neurological events.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Long Island, can we use you as a guinea pig?

Would you feel secure enough to put up all his test results, and lets see what the breaches and triggers were?

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Mamakay, any pathways you know of, because epileptics can be hugely helped using biochemical pathways with certain vitamins/minerals as well. Naturally its an area I have NO EXPERIENCE in, having only watched from afar as an acquaintance turned her life around, but not really concentrating at the time.

[LongIsland]

Originally Posted by Momtezuma Tuatara

Long Island, can we use you as a guinea pig?

Would you feel secure enough to put up all his test results, and lets see what the breaches and triggers were?

Ya know, are you a friggin mind reader lady? I was searching as you wrote your reply!

I have the peptide results in my vaccine injury folder, but not the other results. The peptides were sent out of state, so they're not on the same page as the other results.

It's almost 2:00 a.m. and the screen is getting blurry, so I'm going to hit the hay - but I will continue to search tomorrow.

From what I can recall, they also tested ammonia, which was elevated. Copper was elevated. Zinc was deficient - maybe Vit. A too. Not sure.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Originally Posted by LongIsland

Yes!!! His immune system was completely messed up . . . . . . which made him physically ill.

I still disagree with the wording.

He is no more physically ill than a car with petrol with sugar in it.

When the fuel balance is right, and the engine tuned, it will work properly. Same with children like yours. He isn't "ill". The symptoms he exhibits aren't "illness", they are pathway dysfunction. I don't find this "illness" train helpful to parents. If parents dissassociate the autism spectrums from illness into dysfunction, I find they are able to analyse more acutely, and also see it as more separate from their child.

If that makes sense.

[LongIsland]

Originally Posted by Momtezuma Tuatara

I still disagree with the wording.

He is no more physically ill than a car with petrol with sugar in it.

When the fuel balance is right, and the engine tuned, it will work properly. Same with children like yours. He isn't "ill". The symptoms he exhibits aren't "illness", they are pathway dysfunction. I don't find this "illness" train helpful to parents. If parents dissassociate the autism spectrums from illness into dysfunction, I find they are able to analyse more acutely, and also see it as more separate from their child.

If that makes sense.

Yes, of course you make sense! When I talk to others parents who have absolutely no idea about the immune system (I'm not referring to the majority here though ), I use the term "physically ill" because most everyone I encounter believes autism is a mental disorder which is typically treated with psychotropic medication. It's an easier comparison for most people.

Now when I say "ill" I am referring to vomitting, constipation, ear infections, persistent runny nose, etc.

I am not referring to lack of speech, poor eye contact, stimming, head banging, spinning objects, etc. Most people believe the autistic characteristics I just mentioned are symptoms of a mental disorder instead of an immune system disfunction.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

But I would also like to see magnesium, chromium, selenium, .... aluminium... all the minerals, not just those....

there other helpful bits would be his immunological parameters including all the five Ig's and subclasses, antimyelins, myeloperoxidas stain, amino acids, cytogenetics, toxicology, chemistry and full differentials.

And if they did them, t4/t8 ratios, /cd8's, maybe CD2/CD3 ratio... Cd4s.... CD8/CD28 ratios... CD2/CD19 ratios and any specific T-cell studies they did.

ON TOP OF THAT..... the food allergy testing other then milk and wheat if there were any and the digestive stool analysis with digestion, absorption, metabolic markers, and the dysbiosis analysis. Oh and the fecal lactoferrin...

Ummmm and food antibody assessment IgG..

Did they do the lymphocyte marker test to see if the measles titres were too high? Was his serium IgM and G elevated?

What were his IgA levels like?

Not asking much eh?

[mamakay]

See, I still think the opioids are the end result of something else going wrong in the brain.
Maybe autism is different, but in every other neurological situation, something happens, and then opioids "come to the rescue" ,effectively halting whatever is going on that might be causing neurological trauma.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Okay, we're talking same language. Because when you re-function the dysfunction, the brain snaps into line.

the only problem is there will still be behavioural issues because of the effects on the child of being "locked in" mentally, which triggered the emotional explosions because the mental links are misfiring...

when one child I was dealing with suddenly snapped out (after nearly five years locked in), he immediately attacked him mother physically and in perfectly constructed sentences barrelled her for a whole lot of stuff she had done unknowingly which hurt him emotionally. So we spent a few months talking and working through stuff and rejigging minerals in him, becuase their coming out of it, puts huge other stresses so its a guessing and balancing game, and takes a while.

It's taken six years to get this child to the point where there is stability and predictability. But we know IF he gets a viral illness or the kiwifruit orchard sprays, he will immediately regress fully, and must immediately go on huge doses of vitamin C, zinc and pycnogenol. Within an hour he's back again, but has to be really minerally and nutritionally looked after until the infection subsides.

[LongIsland]

Sure, keep me up so I'm really a zombie when I wake up!

This is the list of tests this DAN doc performs. This list he gave me was from five years ago - I wonder if more extensive testing is conducted now.

*Complete blood count w/ differential and platelet count
*Serum metabolic assay (complete)
*Thyroid profile (T3, T4 and TSH)
*Amino acid profile (plasma)
*Organic acid profile (urine)
*Ammonia level
*Lactic acid level
*Pyruvic acid level (pyruvate)
*Heavy metal profile (lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium), blood
*Vitamin A level
*Zinc and copper (serum)
*Measles, mumps and rubella antibody IGG titers
*Fragile X
*IgG, A, M, E
*IGG subclasses
*T cell function tests
*Myelin basic protein and neural axon filament antibodies

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Originally Posted by mamakay

See, I still think the opioids are the end result of something else going wrong in the brain.
Maybe autism is different, but in every other neurological situation, something happens, and then opioids "come to the rescue" ,effectively halting whatever is going on that might be causing neurological trauma.

In autism, I feel there is nothing wrong in the brain itself. The blood brain barrier though is a different matter, and in autistics it seems to be fragile. Therefore the brain dysfunction is the end point of a whole lot of dysbiosis, and chemical imbalance, and when the "disarray" goes through the blood brain barrier, then the "autism" clicks in.

However, for Long Island, if she wants more children, she will have to look to her nutrition and the best way to "construct" a child in utero to try to eliminate sections of the "gun" from developing in the child while she is pregnant.