Autism's social deficits in animal model are reversed by an anti-cancer drug • Hacker News Board

Re: Autism's social deficits in animal model are reversed by an anti-cancer drug

#101

Post by exelius » Thu, Mar 15, 2018, 2:31 AM UTC

tomcooks wrote: post #80

Waterluvian wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have ADHD. Drugs like ritalin never "fixed" me. They basically allowed me an exchange: give up the charisma, personality, sociability, and appetite for 8 hours of being able to focus on something. I won't write an essay here but trust me that the two versions of me were day and night and both had significant benefits and challenges. I really struggled growing up. By the time I got to college I learned to use the dr…

Side question for my research: Have you tried hiking for more than 10 consecutive days, possibly without carrying tech with you?

Yes, when I was in college.

Re: Autism's social deficits in animal model are reversed by an anti-cancer drug

#102

Post by Turing_Machine » Thu, Mar 15, 2018, 2:50 AM UTC

scardine wrote: post #76

Turing_Machine wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you believe otherwise?

There is no evolutionary pressure. Evolution is not an endless race to a superior form: mother nature is content with "good enough". Many modern sharks arrived 100 million years ago while modern humans are believed to be 70,000 years old. Why? Sharks were good enough. Humans are good enough now. Even weak people can survive just fine - even people with defective genes that would not survive enough to reproduce a cent…

"There is no evolutionary pressure."

Sure there is.

Are the people who are having lots of children that survive to adulthood today different in significant ways from the people who had lots of children who survived to adulthood 100 years ago?

Clearly, yes.

> Not only dumb people can survive but there are evidence they procreate a lot more than smart people.

If dumb people survive and procreate more than smart people, and if intelligence is hereditary, the human race will become dumber.

That's evolution, dude.

Re: Autism's social deficits in animal model are reversed by an anti-cancer drug

#103

Post by canttestthis » Thu, Mar 15, 2018, 8:00 AM UTC

hnuser1234 wrote: post #83

canttestthis wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you elaborate?

Concerta/ritalin/etc are sit down and shut up drugs. It makes you feel neurotic and trapped inside your own head so you're not as physically disruptive as a healthy kid should be. It leads to paranoia and anxiety that you only grow accustomed to and can't grow out of. The lack of appetite stunts development. Just look for real world stories of people who've taken these drugs and paid more attention to what happened t…

Do you feel the same way about Adderall? I've been on Ritalin for months and haven't felt any negative effects.

Re: Autism's social deficits in animal model are reversed by an anti-cancer drug

#104

Post by ada1981 » Thu, Mar 15, 2018, 10:27 AM UTC

loriverkutya wrote: post #96

ada1981 wrote: post #90

Couple things... This drug is naturally occurring and derived from a bacteria that is found in soil. Curious about a link between kids not playing in the dirt enough and autism. Second, this drug is used to treat lymphoma. Surely their have been kids with autism who also had lymphoma who were exposed to this drug. Would be useful to look and see if there are cases of autism being cured along with lymphoma treatment (…

> Curious about a link between kids not playing in the dirt enough and autism. I'm sorry, but it seems, you don't really know much about autism. It is not a disease which you develop over the years, because you have been not played enough in the dirt. You born with it. Also, there is no known 'cure' for autism.

I certainly don't know a lot about Autism, you are right about that.

Since this drug is found in the dirt, I became curious if there might be a link between microbial exposure and autism.

I started to look and came across an article in the American Journal of Public Health that said the one of the biggest factors for risk of autism was urban vs Rural and that researchers speculated it may have to do with neonatal microbial exposure.

AUTISM AND URBANIZATION https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2882422/

I spoke with an SF biohacker doctor friend who said that autism "for certain” was connected to the microbiome.

I don't claim to be an expert, but my curiosity is certainly leading me to some new personal discoveries about Autism.

Re: Autism's social deficits in animal model are reversed by an anti-cancer drug

#105

Post by chki » Thu, Mar 22, 2018, 12:32 AM UTC

scardine wrote: post #58

titanix2 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I read and maybe my own on-the-spectrum-traits the ability to focus intensely and for months on something. It really helps for studies.

This is a myth. Authism is a spectrum disorder and you don't meet the more disfunctional cases very often. A few percent are also savants but not everyone in the spectrum has some superpower. The severe cases are very crippling and place a heavy burden in the family (specially because the life expectancy is normal so you will not be always available to care for your autistic son).

I think the discussion should not be whether autistic people have some kind of superpower but whether there are parts of the autistic spectrum that can't be thought of as a disease.

There are obvious examples of Autism that are absolutely objectively terrible for the person experiencing it, this is not about those cases but about the "less severe cases" where an autistic child can go to a normal school and lead a generally normal life. If that is the case, I think the line between what you call a disease and mere personality traits is actually not very clear. Instinctively I would be very careful to describe someone's personality as a disease just because it is different from other peoples behaviour.

The problem with my thinking on the other hand is probably that the definition of the word autism itself might be unclear when considering these edge cases.