PLT Test Blog

  Struggle to make friends? Consider Oxytocin Today’s post was going to be about FMT super-donors, but instead we have a post about new insights into using oxytocin to treat autism.   From personal experience I can say that you really can target oxytocin receptors to affect mood/behavior; I have no personal experience of FMT (fecal microbiota transplants), but thousands of people use it for many conditions.   The FMT post will be next. Oxytocin and vasopressin are two hormones, made in the hypothalamus, that are established targets for autism treatment . They are released into the bloodstream where they carry out their best-known functions, but they are also released from the hypothalamus directly into the brain where these hormones have entirely different functions. Both oxytocin and vasopressin can be given as nasal sprays to enter the central nervous system (CNS) rather than just the blood stream.   This means you get the brain effects of the hormone, also known ...

Need a wizard, or your local doctor? I was intrigued to come across a recent paper on immune modulatory treatments for autism by a couple of doctors from Massachusetts General Hospital for Children.   The lead author has interests in: ·       Autism spectrum disorders ·       Psychopharmacology ·       Developmental Disabilities ·       Williams syndrome ·       Angelman syndrome ·       Down syndrome Apparently, he is an internationally-recognized expert in the neurobiology and neuropsychopharmacology of childhood-onset neuropsychiatric disorders including autistic disorder.  Sounds promising, hopefully we will learn something new. The paper is actually a review of existing drugs, with immunomodulatory properties, that have already been suggested to be repurposed for autism. The abstract was not very insightful, so I have highl...

Today’s post has two themes, one relates to Transitory Autism, where a toddler with autism appears to “grow out” of the condition and the other is another substance produced in the gut, like we saw earlier with Propionic acid, that can produce “autism”.    Increased intestinal transit time and bacteria produce P-Cresol If your gut produces a lot of propionic acid, instead of butyric acid, you can appear to have autism. Today we see that producing too much P-Cresol in your gut produces symptoms of autism. I suspect in most cases P-Cresol is making severe autism worse, rather than making a neurologically healthy, but likely constipated, person exhibit autism. Elevated P-Cresol is associated with increased intestinal transit time and not Clostridium type bacteria.   We know that elevated P-Cresol is reduced after oral supplementation with oligofructose-enriched inulin.   It is suggested that certain probiotic bacteria might also lower P-Cresol.   A microbiota trans...