Thursday, September 27, 2007

Proprionic Acid - UWO Scientists Find Potential Autism Gut-Brain Connection

Scientists at the University of Western Ontario, responding to parents' reports of significant improvement in behavior of their autistic children after elimination of wheat and dairy products from their diets, have conducted a lab study using rats which appears to confirm an autism gut-brain connection.

Dr. Derrick MacFabe, director of the UWO research group reported to CBC that the research focused on propionic acid, a short chain fatty acid found in the gut and in bread and dairy products. When the compound was administered to rat's brains:

"They immediately engaged in bouts of repetitive behaviour, hyperactivity and impaired social behaviours which had close similarity to what parents are seeing with autism,"

The rat's brains were later examined and found to contain inflammatory processes similar to those in the brains of autistic children. Screening studies looking at effects of dietary changes in the general population are now under way with MacFabe's team at UWO, Queen's University and Harvard University.

The UWO study reported today will have to be followed up on before conclusions can be drawn. The study itself though is quite revolutionary in so far as it was prompted by observations made by parents of autistic children. Parents' observations of their autistic children are often disregarded or discounted and the greatest long term value of this study may turn out to be that the research team took parents' reports into account as a guide to conducting research into potential causes of autism.

4 comments:

passionlessDrone said...

The only people who are surprized at this are the ones who consistently reject the notion that parents annectodal evidence is meaningless.

If you've been to a DAN, or actually talked with other parents who have tried dietary intervetions, this, of course, comes as no surprize.

Anonymous said...

My son is living proof that diet can change the life of a child. He went from failing everything to being an "A" student who is happy with life.

He is allergic to Wheat, Milk, Orange, Strawberry, Pork, Tomato as well as all seasonal and environmental allergies too. By removing these form his diet completely he is calm,happy, sweet, his sink is rash free, his hives are gone, his asthma under control, and in his words "the house has stopped shaking" for him.

The change in him is so dramatic.

Anonymous said...

The naysayers can say what they want, but after taking myself off dairy products he is no longer exhibiting autistic behaviors. He is manageable, we can go in public, and he constructs intelligent sentences. I tried this because I believe nutrition can make a difference.

Bill Pickersgill said...

nutrition is everything you are what you eat 99.7% of all cancers are what oneput's in there body and what about adverse reactions to all the chemical's in the food and water ?especially susseptable are children and teen's who's immune systems etc aren't fully developed that's why vaccine's are so dangerous it's simple the one's who develop autism are the one's who are sensitive to the vaccine think about it autism was unheard of before multiple vaccine's and as for feeling good and looking better see Dan 1: all [niv version]