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Metabolism of autism reveals developmental origins

medicalxpress.com

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Re: Metabolism of autism reveals developmental origins

#281

Post by bloqs »

imtringued wrote: post #276
lettergram wrote: post #191

[flagged]

Meanwhile African countries are still waiting for a vaccine against Malaria to be delivered to them. The only people who dislike vaccines are those who live in a world where vaccines are so successful they no longer have to care about the problem the vaccine is solving.

I think this is a true statement, but the lack of further comment is in itself a value judgement.

The only people who dislike vaccines, are people who felt lied to, or were forced to take them. Their concerns may have been invalid in some instances, or even most instances, but the fact remains that at least a few of their concerns were valid.

Re: Metabolism of autism reveals developmental origins

#282

Post by imtringued »

WA wrote: post #274
mewpmewp2 wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You don’t even have to go to the extreme end. Ask people with milder presentations, and they’ll be able to tell you about all sorts of confusing interactions and frustrating situations they’ve experienced that wouldn’t have happened if they were neurotypical. Hard to say that doesn’t impact their quality of life. Sure, I had rough childhood, but looking back, I wouldn't want to be someone else. The way my brain foc…

> I had passion as a kid, interest in weird things, but school and the social environment killed every little bit of it. As a parent of an autistic kid: How would you cultivate that? Our son is autistic, he is 8 years old. He started to hate school. All he cares for is Minecraft and Magic: The Gathering. It's a bit sad to see that he seemingly drowns his curiosity by immersing himself mentally only in these two topic…

Make him play a Minecraft mod pack like Nomifactory or Gregtech horizons and an economic simulation game like prosperous universe.

Use that as a stepping stone to increase his interest in architecture, computer science, mechanical engineering, chemistry or aerospace.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jYSfDcbY0w0&pp=ygULbm9taWZhY3R...

Re: Metabolism of autism reveals developmental origins

#283

Post by cwillu »

m00x wrote: post #51
squigz wrote: post #3

Actual paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-024-06102-y

^^^^ Better to read the paper instead of the pop journals. Most writers don't understand the issues fully and make mistakes, or sensationalize the discovery.

“This ^” style comments work very poorly on a site that doesn't maintain temporal ordering of comments.

Re: Metabolism of autism reveals developmental origins

#284

Post by cwillu »

zazazache wrote: post #248

As some one who is let’s say “autism adjacent” it really bothers me when people discuss a cure or prevention. I mean I get it, but this is also who I am and I wouldn’t want to be someone else.

As someone who has been diagnosed, it really bothers me when people tell me I'm not allowed to want to not be this way. For some people, it's a hell.

Re: Metabolism of autism reveals developmental origins

#285

Post by grumpy-de-sre »

ryandrake wrote: post #146
AnEro wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yea example now there are guys in this comment section claiming keto has cured their adhd/autism. Helped reduce symptoms, sure, but cure? (I've got both of them been on keto, like crazy strict ensuring i was in ketosis every two days type, and it only reduced brain fog personally)

Whenever you get an HN story that even remotely brushes up against health, fitness, or nutrition, you inevitably get all the wacky exercise, supplements, and diet commenters coming out of the woodwork to tell you all about "what worked for me". It's a constant that you can 100% count on every time.

You can also add agriculture to that list, apparently we should give up the wins of the green revolution and go back to living in this idealized world of Permaculture food forests and tree houses (George Monbiot has some great takes on these ideas).

I really wonder why HN goes off the rails when these topics come up. Is it just a weak science education, combined with the relative accessibility (and acceptability) of health/fitness/exercise self experimentation? Though I also see gut microbiome discussions being shoehorned to any discussion in this space aswell.

I guess I just don't get it, probably the 'tism.

Re: Metabolism of autism reveals developmental origins

#286

Post by grumpy-de-sre »

asdfman123 wrote: post #246
grumpy-de-sre wrote: post #55

On the topic of metabolic disturbances in Autism, huge fan of the work Dr. Randy Blakely is doing on the links between Serotonin metabolism and Autism. One of the most surprising, and strongest (25-30% of patients), biomarkers for Autism is actually Platelet Hyperserotonemia (high levels of bound Serotonin in the blood). For decades it's been without explanation but recently Dr Blakely has described a bunch of cases…

Genuine question: how do we know that's not just a side effect instead of a driver?

Dr. Blakelys lab has produced knock-in mice with the rare SERT variants described, and they have exhibited the behavioral and biochemical markers of ASD. It's actually a very remarkable finding. They also saw a reduction in ASD symptoms by pharmaceutically blocking the offending inflammatory pathways.

So I think at-least for the tiny fraction of ASD patients with these rare SERT variants there's actually a chance that they are a major driver of the disorder. Regardless it provides a tantalizing look at some of the upstream pathways that could be involved more generally.

I think we're going to find the disorder is very heterogenous and there will be many different subtypes and pathways involved.

Re: Metabolism of autism reveals developmental origins

#287

Post by gizmondo »

Perenti wrote: post #261
zazazache wrote: post #248

As some one who is let’s say “autism adjacent” it really bothers me when people discuss a cure or prevention. I mean I get it, but this is also who I am and I wouldn’t want to be someone else.

I'm on the spectrum (diagnosed), and also like being me (most of the time). But what about the poor sods who have so much happening all the time that they don't get the chance to learn to speak, or read, and scream in terror continually at the unending sensory deluge they try to live through? If there was a way to prevent that kind of presentation of ASD I think everyone would be better off. I took "prevention" to be…

> On the other hand, if "prevention" is about culling the gene pool, I'm dead set against that.

Well, you can be against it by raising autistic children yourself, it seems you're in a perfect position for that. Why people feel they have the right to demand that from others is beyond me.

Re: Metabolism of autism reveals developmental origins

#288

Post by Kirth »

cja wrote: post #254
asdfman123 wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's absolutely not true. Diabetes for instance used to be extremely rare and limited to the elites. And, for instance, ADHD probably isn't a disorder if you live a very simple life and do manual labor all day. No hyperactivity, no DMV appointments, and your life is decided for you. Remember, all the lines are drawn arbitrarily and something is labeled a disorder when it doesn't work with our (very strange) modern…

"ADHD probably isn't a disorder if you live a very simple life and do manual labor all day" Why?

Because physical activity and menial work that allows the mind some down time are effective ways to reduce ADHD symptoms.

Re: Metabolism of autism reveals developmental origins

#290

Post by ModernMech »

gizmondo wrote: post #287
Perenti wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm on the spectrum (diagnosed), and also like being me (most of the time). But what about the poor sods who have so much happening all the time that they don't get the chance to learn to speak, or read, and scream in terror continually at the unending sensory deluge they try to live through? If there was a way to prevent that kind of presentation of ASD I think everyone would be better off. I took "prevention" to be…

> On the other hand, if "prevention" is about culling the gene pool, I'm dead set against that. Well, you can be against it by raising autistic children yourself, it seems you're in a perfect position for that. Why people feel they have the right to demand that from others is beyond me.

The problem is that when you teach society that a certain “kind” of person needs to be culled, that is a stigma about people in that group.

IME such strong feelings don’t don’t stay relegated to your personal choices, they get reflected at a broader policy level.

People say “well it was your choice to have such broken people, we gave you a pill that would make that not possible. Therefore we las a society will not support them (you’ll hear rhetoric along the lines of “why should we spend my hard-earned tax dollars on social programs for autistic people, that’s a you problem, why people demand I pay for their choices is beyond me”)

Of course that’s when the government offers a “compassionate” final solution to the autist problem. Since autistic people can’t seem to stop reproducing despite the “cure”, we should sterilize them. Or we should make it mandatory because otherwise they are a drain. Then of course for the ones who are “too autistic” (I.e. who are nonverbal or who otherwise cannot be productive), we can euthanize them.

No thanks we have been down that road before as a society. It doesn’t end well.

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