PLT Test Blog

Far back in this blog, I wrote a post about fish oil.   Omega 3 oils are definitely good for your general health, but do they help with autism?   They are also claimed to help with ADHD and improve your NT child’s cognitive performance. On critical review of the evidence, it seemed that the benefit was far from conclusive.  There was one very positive study, that neither the authors nor anyone else could repeat. The following review of the literature by the University of Maryland show that, as with autism, studies on fish oil in depression, ADHD, bipolar and schizophrenia show conflicting results. Omega-3 fatty acids Some of the “cognitive enhancing” fish oil products are extremely expensive and I showed that regular fish consumption was far cheaper and likely to be as effective. There is an issue of just how big an effect you are looking for.  We can all imagine tiny effects, but you really want an effect that everyone else notices. Monty, aged 11 with ASD, eats lo...

There is no doubt that most parents’ ideal autism therapy would be a special diet.   The most popular diet is the gluten and casein free diet; in a sub-type of autism this diet clearly is very effective. Another very interesting diet is the Ketogenic diet and its easier to implement cousin, the Modified Atkins diet.   There is also the GAPS diet. Many scientists are very skeptical of the therapeutic value of special diets. I am always looking for connections in the science.   If I can find from multiple starting points the same conclusion, this triggers my interest, regardless if anyone else has highlighted the area as an issue for autism. Today my reinforcing arguments is indeed a diet; the Ketogenic diet. Remember that epilepsy is highly comorbid with autism, and trials have shown the ketogenic diet to reduce the incidence of seizures by half. This post was supposed to be a short one, but it just kept growing.   You can skip the complicated parts and go to the con...