Autism Flare-Ups & Leaky Blood Brain Barrier
As I discussed in an earlier post, autism flare-ups occur regularly in the lives of many autistic children. The cause might be a pollen allergy, food allergy or indeed an illness that does not cause a fever. That last part might sound odd, but fever actually reduces autistic behaviours. This has been noted and documented by many, but never conclusively explained. Lots of parents have noticed and one even created a blog about it , but they have not explained it. To investigate the fever effect, you first need to understand thermoregulation, the process by which the body sets and maintains its temperature and the role played by of the HPA axis ( hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis ). The simplified explanation is that the body initiates a fever as part of its defence mechanism to the threat that has been detected, like an infection of some kind. Certain hormones are released so as to raise and then maintain a steady higher temperature; they include TR...