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Infant microbes and metabolites point to childhood neurodevelopmental disorders

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Re: Infant microbes and metabolites point to childhood neurodevelopmental disorders

#31
post #21

Remember the study that said autism and ADHD are linked to acetaminophen use during pregnancy? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9385573/ Well it turns out that "Acetaminophen during bacterial colonization of the naïve gut is associated with lasting alterations in childhood microbiome composition": https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9367926/

...except that my mother never used Tylenol during her pregnancy with me and I'm absolutely ASD.

I'm not saying these things don't have an influence on severity or presentation of ASD. But they are certainly not the root cause(s).

Re: Infant microbes and metabolites point to childhood neurodevelopmental disorders

#32

As someone from an autistic family, at least in our case it's definitely genetic.

Heritability doesn't imply that it's only caused by genetics. For example, schizophrenia is thought to arise from genetic and environmental interaction. So it's still worth trying to understand what environmental factors influence occurrence or severity of ASD.

Re: Infant microbes and metabolites point to childhood neurodevelopmental disorders

#33
I'd like to add a little bit of water to this particular fire. I'm autistic and I've read numerous studies along this vein. In short, yes there's a strong link between gut flora and brain development however autism (and presumably ADHD) is a heterogeneous condition with a variety of interrelated causes.

Personally, I can say that this likely is a proximate cause for me as I got a bad staph infection at just a few months old and naturally I was treated by antibiotics. However, I also have quite a few genes that are associated with autism as well. So while there's an increasingly clear picture, I'd hesitate to say what exactly is and isn't a cause of being autistic.

Re: Infant microbes and metabolites point to childhood neurodevelopmental disorders

#34

The more I come across articles like this (yes: I know it’s talking about early life) the more I start to wonder if the problems I’ve struggled with in the past and to a somewhat lesser extent now (anxiety, with quite severe physical symptoms) are caused by/can at least be alleviated by a change in gut flora. I have this weird feeling (based on some recurring experience) that anxiety and digestion are somehow deeply…

Yo no joke I did a fecal transplant, which is a major change in gut flora. I have not noticed much of a difference tbh.

May I ask what it was to treat?

Re: Infant microbes and metabolites point to childhood neurodevelopmental disorders

#35
"Exercise appears to be effective in modifying the gut microbiota in both clinical and healthy populations." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10054511/

Anecdotal: my persistent digestion issues completely disappeared when I started walking (not running, not jogging - walking) 2-3 miles a day.

Re: Infant microbes and metabolites point to childhood neurodevelopmental disorders

#36
post #21

Remember the study that said autism and ADHD are linked to acetaminophen use during pregnancy? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9385573/ Well it turns out that "Acetaminophen during bacterial colonization of the naïve gut is associated with lasting alterations in childhood microbiome composition": https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9367926/

...except that my mother never used Tylenol during her pregnancy with me and I'm absolutely ASD. I'm not saying these things don't have an influence on severity or presentation of ASD. But they are certainly not the root cause(s).

ASD is most certainly multiple things with multiple causes.

Re: Infant microbes and metabolites point to childhood neurodevelopmental disorders

#37
I’m immediately skeptical of the methods. When I was a kid, doctors would shove antibiotics on you if you even coughed. The families where that wasn’t the case had a definite vibe, so this is screaming confounded variables to me. Who knows, maybe they did it right, but I’m skeptical.

Re: Infant microbes and metabolites point to childhood neurodevelopmental disorders

#38

The more I come across articles like this (yes: I know it’s talking about early life) the more I start to wonder if the problems I’ve struggled with in the past and to a somewhat lesser extent now (anxiety, with quite severe physical symptoms) are caused by/can at least be alleviated by a change in gut flora. I have this weird feeling (based on some recurring experience) that anxiety and digestion are somehow deeply…

Yes, I'm autistic and I regularly take lactobacillus reuteri which has helped my gut quite a bit. I wouldn't say it was a massive shift, but it certainly has been really nice. There's at least some evidence that this bacteria is deficient in autistic individuals and supplementation can help with that.[1]

[1] https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1343/

Re: Infant microbes and metabolites point to childhood neurodevelopmental disorders

#39

The more I come across articles like this (yes: I know it’s talking about early life) the more I start to wonder if the problems I’ve struggled with in the past and to a somewhat lesser extent now (anxiety, with quite severe physical symptoms) are caused by/can at least be alleviated by a change in gut flora. I have this weird feeling (based on some recurring experience) that anxiety and digestion are somehow deeply…

I don’t know how much is microbiome or micronutrients or general diet or what, but yes, as guided by my doctors, I’ve made a few adjustments to supplements and foods that made a huge difference in anxiety and depression.

Some of the adjustments I was told affect microbiome but I don’t know why / how.

All of that said, for an anxiety attack there’s nothing like meds, in my experience, to put a lid on it real quick.

Re: Infant microbes and metabolites point to childhood neurodevelopmental disorders

#40

I am a parent of a kid on ASD. We did this 10 years ago. There was a Dr Boch who was popular for this and there have been parents and doctors talking about this for a long time (and were dismissed as kooks). If there weren’t for the big pharma industrial complex and modern liberals’ unconditional support for big pharma, we would also be talking and studying more about vaccine induced autism.

There is no group other than "big pharma" that has been successfully finding cures to serious medical conditions.

There is no group other than "big pharma" that has massively extended average life expectancy over the past 100+ years.

It is insane that there is such a large group of people trying to drag us back to the past where snakeoil salesmen sold fake medicine and basically every aspect of our collective health was worse.

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