PLT Test Blog

Alli from Switzerland discovered the autism benefits of Bio Gaia Gastrus. This probiotic contains two different bacteria:- ·         Lactobacillus reuteri  17938 ( Lactobacillus reuteri   Protectis)   ·         L actobacillus   reuteri   ATCC PTA 6475 These two bacteria have different effects. The first bacteria is very well researched and recently was shown to increase oxytocin in autism mouse studies.  It is available on its own and this is the product most people I know are using. The second bacteria is included in Bio Gaia Gastrus specifically for its additional anti-inflammatory effects. Recent comments on this blog have shown that some people have a negative “histamine-y" reaction to Bio Gaia Gastrus.  This is entirely logical since the mode of action of the second bacteria is to generate histamine to activate H2 receptors in the gut. This might sound rather odd since histamin...

  An interesting trial of a TNF- α and IL-6 inhibitor in autism has been brought to my attention.   It was by Michael Chez, the neurologist from Sacramento, who has made several appearances on this blog. By coincidence, a copy of his book arrived this week.   The book is called “ Autism and its Medical Management ”, Chez is one of the few mainstream doctors who does try and treat autism.   The book is rational, readable and in no way radical, so you could show it to your family doctor without upsetting him/her.   Chez does particularly focus on distinguishing regressive from non-regressive autism, as do I. His view is that it is regressive autism, even if it was regression from slightly abnormal.   The important part is that some learned skills, like language, were lost sometime after 12 months of age.   He believes that regressive autism has a different basis to non-regressive autism; he has his own ideas about this, but he admits there is no concr...

You may be wondering why, with so many research papers written about autism, so little progress has been made.   It is a very complex task, but nobody is coordinating it. How do you find a Boeing 777 missing somewhere in Asia?   Another daunting challenge, but with the right people and resources it can be done.   With the wrong people, it will prove to be impossible. Ashwood et al have documented the level of various inflammatory markers in autism.   Very helpfully, they created three groups: typical children, children with non-regressive autism, and children with regressive autism. Elevated plasma cytokines in autism spectrum disorders provide evidence   of immune dysfunction and are associated with impaired behavioral outcome Table 2, on the third page, tells us what we need to know.   Certain cytokine levels are markedly elevated in regressive autism, including IL-6 and TNF-alpha.   Furthermore, the difference between the two types of autism is dram...

  We have noted in earlier posts that autism is a dynamic encephalopathy and this may help explain why a therapy that works in a child aged 10, may be of little help to another child aged 3.   Not only are there many sub-types of autism, but each sub-type is evolving, as the child matures. None of the autism drug therapies I have implemented have permanent disease changing effects, they all seem to work, but the effect is lost once you stop taking them.   Today’s post is about drugs that you take just once.   For a parent trying to find a drug that works in the sub-type affecting their child, this has a big advantage.   No need to keep trying for months to see if the drug has any effect. Perhaps the most important time to intervene with drug therapy is as soon as possible after the diagnosis; but with what? In an earlier post on trying to get a non-verbal child to talk, I suggested the use of corticosteroids to arrest on-going neuroinflammation.   Drugs li...

Tonsil biopsy in variant CJD, source: Wikipedia Amyloid may sound like someone’s name, but in fact it is something rather sinister and is related to many brain disorders.   It appears that, at least in severe cases, they may be implicated in autism, or least the precursor is. Proteins that are normally soluble undergo a process called amyloidosis, which makes them insoluble and allows deposits to accumulate in various organs, including the brain.   There are many known examples, including Alzheimer’s   and Mad Cow Disease ( Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease ).   A number of years ago there was a huge public health scare in the UK, when humans were affected by Mad Cow Disease, after eating the brains of cows in processed food. Symptoms vary widely, depending upon where in the body amyloid deposits accumulate. Amyloidosis may be inherited or acquired. The precursor to amyloid is naturally called   Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP). APP exists in...