PLT Test Blog

  Our reader in Canada, AJ, did highlight a case series from Norway that showed that high dose Betaine/TMG was effective in improving functioning in people with autism due to creatine transporter deficiency.   The use of Betaine/TMG was really just stumbled upon and the authors considered what the beneficial possible mode of action could be.   Betaine (TMG) and Gene Therapy as potential alternatives to Bumetanide Treatment in Autism?   The effect was only present at high dose (7-10 g a day) not the much lower dose used by some DAN/MAPS doctors, who do prescribe TMG and the closely related DMG. The paper suggested that one possible effect might have been lowering chloride levels within neurons.   This is also the effect of Bumetanide. AJ suggested that Betaine/TMG might be an alternative to Bumetanide and one that does not need a prescription. Our reader Nancy reported a benefit in her adult son. The question is not whether or not high dose TMG is a useful ...

By far the most read post in this blog is one about histamine and allergies, which means many people are searching on Google for “histamine, allergy and autism”. Our reader Kei recently commented that his daughter, without allergy, was again showing signs of summertime raging and that his neurologist confirmed that summertime raging does indeed happen and nobody knows why. I did figure out how to deal with our version of “summertime raging” and the post-bumetanide “dumber in the summer” phenomena.   There were several posts on this subject.   The lasting solution was to treat the raging as if it was caused by inflammation driven by pollen allergy and to note that inflammation will further worsen the KCC2/NKCC1 imbalance in Bumetanide-responsive autism, making those people appear “dumber in the summer”.   This also accounts for the “Bumetanide has stopped working” phenomenon, reported by some parents.   You need to minimize inflammation from allergy and increase Bumet...

There are many comorbidities associated with autism.   I have long held the view that these comorbidities hold the key to understanding each particular case of autism.   In many cases this may be far more useful than genetic testing, which only seems to help in a minority of cases. “Ringed esophagus” aka “Corrugated esophagus” This then allows you to put people into sub-groups that may well respond to the same therapy.   This may all sound like common sense, but apparently is not. Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is a relatively new diagnosis and it is applies to a certain type of reflux/GERD/GORD that might be associated with a difficulty in swallowing and may not respond well to the standard stomach acid lowering therapies. It is likely that most people with Eosinophilic esophagitis have never been correctly diagnosed. Many people have taken several years to get the correct diagnosis. It is known that Eosinophilic esophagitis is much more common in autism than the genera...