AsianScientist (July 4, 2017) – In a review published in Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, researchers suggest that a change of diet for patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may help manage the condition.
“To date, there are no effective therapies to treat this range of brain developmental disorders,” explained Dr Li Qinrui of Peking University, China. “The number of people being diagnosed with ASD is on the rise. As well as being an expensive condition to manage, ASD has a huge emotional and social cost on the families of sufferers.”
The link between the gut and ASD is well-known among sufferers: problems like diarrhoea, constipation and flatulence are commonly reported. The root of gastro-intestinal problems like these is an imbalance of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ bacteria in the gut. The overgrowth of bad bacteria in the gut leads to an overproduction of molecules that make the gut lining more ‘leaky’. This in turn allows toxins, by-products and undigested food to enter into the bloodstream and travel to the brain.
In a child whose brain is still developing, these chemicals can impair neuro-development, leading to ASD. This prompted researchers to question how the imbalance in gut bacteria first arises.
“ASD is likely to be a result of both genetic and environmental factors,” explained Li. “The environmental factors include the overuse of antibiotics in babies, maternal obesity and diabetes during pregnancy, how a baby is delivered and how long it is breastfed. All of these can affect the balance of bacteria in an infant’s gut, so they are risk factors for ASD.”
However, the researchers found strong evidence that reverting the gut microbiota to a healthy state can increase sociability, reduce repetitive behavior and improve social communication in individuals suffering from ASD.
“Efforts to restore the gut microbiota to that of a healthy person have been shown to be really effective,” explained Li. “Our review looked at taking probiotics, prebiotics, changing the diet, for example, to gluten- and casein-free diets, and fecal matter transplants. All had a positive impact on symptoms.”
While these observations are optimistic, the researchers believe that the number and size of such studies are too small, and that new clinical trials are needed to take this research to the next level.
“We are encouraged by our findings, but there is no doubt that further work needs to be carried out in this field,” said Li. “We need more well-designed and larger-scale studies to support our theory. For now, behavioural therapies remain the best way to treat ASD. We would hope that our review leads to research on the link between the gut microbiota and ASD, and eventually a cheap and effective treatment.”
The article can be found at: Li et al. (2017) The Gut Microbiota and Autism Spectrum Disorders.
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Source: Frontiers; Photo: Shutterstock.
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